Posted on 06/10/2014 4:26:08 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Colorado has a new cash crop.
New figures show that the state has been raking in profits since January, when it became the first in the nation to legalize the sale of marijuana for recreational use.
Add in sales taxes from lower taxed medical marijuana and so far this year the state has banked nearly $18 million.
Along with the big bucks have come some big problems.
Like 10 toddlers so far this year overdosing on edible marijuana products.
And from January through May, the Colorado State Patrol handed out 289 tickets to people driving under the influence of marijuana.
The tax money is supposed to be spent on schools, but some of it may be earmarked to hire more people to regulate this booming business and more cops to arrest those driving under the influence.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Indeed... this money grows weeds, it does not make oil pipelines. It is backed by death.
Your right. I had the wrong idiot. Sorry Ms. Huffington!
What gives you the impression they aren't and haven't been doing ever since prohibition?
We are arming BOTH SIDES in the WOD! The govt is making bank hand over fist! That's why they threaten to MURDER YOU for your flower garden!
Once prohibition ends the price and sales on cannabis will take a nose dive. Prohibition is the economic lifeblood of the cartels and the drug nazi death squads!
The tax money from this is just going to increase the size of government, create more laws, more enforcement, and the need for the government to increase usage by the public. It’s not libertarian at all.
Keep dreaming. You are a government addict.
NO, you would never do that, because the tax money is an addiction, AND you want marijuana to be paid for by the tax base, not the user. You are seriously addicted to big government and big business.
Define "overdose"! None died, nor suffered ANY damage. Praise God it wasn't tylenol or aspirin!
Cannabis was designed for us by the one that designed us!
Keep telling yourself how right and righteous you are for destroying lives with your law. Cannabis does not make anyone a criminal, the law does.
What an insult!
How is being self sufficient make anyone a govt addict?
You speak of that which you do not know.
If you are currently self sufficient that is great, but why would you deny that right to others? The fact is, this legislation in Colorado is making government grow in every direction.
You may think it's okay, because you are self sufficient, so screw other people, but that is going to boomerang. The states already don't want people to be self sufficient, with every expanding law enforcement, how long before the law enforcement and exponentially growing laws land on your doorstep?
I once considered moving to CO. Not anymore......
CA has been raking it in since they enacted medical pot in 1997. Last I saw it was $100M/yr. So where are all the murders associated with the trade?
We now have 22 states and DC with medical mj, yet crime is falling and highways are safer than ever.
Unfortunately or fortunately; however you choose to look at it, the tooth paste is out of the tube.
Do you support letting states decide intrastate mj regulation, as the 10th Amendment says?
Don’t forget Maureen(I ain’t Catherine Zeta) Dowd...
Why would anyone pay for something that is FREE? How can you tax sunshine dirt and rain?
How long before people figure out they can grow their own, and not be dependent on the govt for their drugs?
You sir are the one forcing dependence on people!
Can you blow tobacco cigar smoke into clouds like that legally in public? Or do you have to shelter yourself indoors at home to be able to partake of THAT legal substance?
If the oil that was used in the candybar had been put into single serve pills instead, she would’ve been unlikely to take 16 doses at once.
Even then it took over an hour to take effect.
Don’t drugs come with instructions, precautions, and warnings?
Only partially repealed prohibition. The Feds mandate (through hijacking of federal highway funds) a 21+ year drinking age and a 0.08 (headed downward to 0.03) BAC for drivers.
Obama and Eric Holder have been caught illegally arming the narcoterrorists in Mexico. Legalizing pot is going to do nothing to prosecute them for that crime.
What are you doing about that except rah-rahing pot at every turn?
If you are truly concerned about us arming the other side in the WOD, what are you willing to do to prosecute the highest office holder in the land?
Write your congressman yet?
Write your local paper’s editor yet?
Create a twitter hash tag (pardon the pun)?
6 months... $18m. projected yearly tax revenue from pot: $36m
total state tax revenue: $10bn
percentage of tax revenue coming from pot: 0.36%
yea... that was worth degrading the moral fabric of the state. all that lack of motivation should really help drive the economy
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-tax-revenue-data.html
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