Check out the official unveiling today @MontanasAvon! Thanks Liz for the pics ^_^ #zazzz pic.twitter.com/rp5FXAdtvG
— Herbal Elements (@HerbalColorado) April 12, 2014
Vending machines and big money:
Colorado, the first state to tax legalized recreational marijuana sales, expects to bring in an estimated $98 million in revenue this year, exceeding the state’s original expectations by 40 percent. […]
The funds are slated for treatment, school construction and deterring young people from using the drug. School districts will likely get $40 million, or nearly 30 percent, of the projected $134 million in total marijuana tax revenues. New revenues will only make up 1.4 percent of the state’s available general fund.
I wonder how the state legislators in Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico and Utah feel about this, because I”m sure that $134 million isn’t coming from just Colorado residents.
Mustang Bobby
And that doesn’t take into account the revenue from sales at fast-food places and convenience stores for Pop-Tarts and Pringles.
Poopyman
Har har har.
Bob
Hey, there are pot smokers in Kansas too. I know, hard to believe.
Poopyman
Knowing how police forces operate, you can count on “other expenditures”.
Michael J.
IT’S ON WHEELS!
You’d think it would be bolted down or moved by forklift.
negative 1
Let’s hear it for Rhode Island State Senator Josh Miller who is trying to bring a similar bill to the floor in Rhode Island. If our state legislature were remotely coherent we’d do it before Cape Cod gets the huge bump in beach tourism money instead of us.
dr. bloor
Anybody have the contact info available for Little Debbie vending machine concessions in CO?
dr. bloor
@negative 1:
We can just file this one under “If my aunt had balls…”
Baud
Hmmm.
WereBear
I’ve long said that once state governments catch on to the incredible tourism potential they’ll be climbing all over each other to be the next ones.
Marc
@Baud: Yeah, more than a little pointless, isn’t it?
Still, at least it’s not alcohol or tobacco.
amk
@Baud: same as booze and ciggies.
eta: marc beat me to it.
Baud
ef=”#comment-4954075″>Marc: @amk:
Cigs, yes. I’m not aware of a policy of encouraging people to abstain from alcohol altogether (anymore).
Professor
Don’t forget to factor in the savings on the cost of imprisonments and prosecutions. Also the enhancement of the quality of life: medicinal, removal of fear and anxiety.
raven
Hey Nineteen.
The Ancient Randonneur
Whuuuuut?
Aurona
Yes; well, I am waiting patiently for the Big Roll-Out (or is it Roll Up) in WA state….it should be about mid-year or Two Whole Months More. Rumor has it that they are beginning to sell to customers via telephone orders and cash only sales (must show positive ID). So there’s that! I would just be happy if I can live and die in a state that offers the herb without the threat of arrest, so good luck to everyone in other states. It will happen eventually; meanwhile, tourism is up in our fair state, we’ve got a socialist fighting for $15/hour on our Seattle City Council, Seahawks won the Bud Bowl, and a gay guy is our new mayor. Good times indeed.
Mike R
Can’t say what the other states law makers are saying, but being from Nebraska have a good idea what passes for republican thought in this state. They don’t want it, our youth will be corrupted the good life will be destroyed, that’s our state motto.
They have the same out look on casino gambling, which is available across the border in Iowa. The rational is that the money doesn’t all stay in Iowa, that some goes to casino owners on the east coast and Las Vegas. Of course the money from Nebraskan’s heading to Iowa, South Dakota, and the Indian Casinos all leaves and none stays here but just shut up cause we said so. Our leaders or what passes for leadership are just as looney as those in Kansas but for now are a little subtler.
Hell, these guys are so obtuse they didn’t even take the Medicaid expansion because someday it might cost them money and well poor folks can just to something, who knows what but as long as they don’t die on the sidewalk it is okay.
Villago Delenda Est
The Cuervo Gold. the fine Colombian
StringOnAStick
There are lots of other associated businesses here in CO, like the limo that serves pot tourists so they can light up on their way to the slopes or to their pot-friendly hotel. Tourism is definitely up here, on a high sloping trajectory you could say.
The funniest thing to me is the happy excitement by imbibers who are just so jazzed that weed is legal, man! I no longer participate but I remember many augmented discussions about how stupid it was that it was illegal and that some day it wouldn’t be; I’m just surprised it even happened. I recall signing the petition to get it on the ballot; the woman at the table was in her 80’s and made the point that the taxes collected would go to schools. Of course the legislature tacked on the deal about funding diversion programs, thus stealing from our already underfunded and infrastructure-poor school system.
Villago Delenda Est
@StringOnAStick:
Well of course.
Fuck the future, we’ve got short term desires to gratify, we do.
Bill B
The story is the other states are “enhancing revenue” by busting cars with Colorado plates.
Tbone
As a Denver resident, I’m not sure why I should care about our neighboring states sending their dollars here. And it’s not only the neighboring states- people are coming from all over. Honestly it’s going to be a huge boost to tourism.
But the best part is the look on people’s faces in the dispensaries. Everyone is so happy and excited to be there, it’s literally like kids in a candy store.
Also, the customer demographic has been pretty interesting. Of course you get lots of college aged kids, but there’s way, way more middle aged people (both men and women) coming in than I would have expected. Also lots of nice cars in the parking lots of these places.
Enzymer
@Tbone:
Hey us Boomers have been fans of green heaven for a long time
Glocksman
I must be getting old because when I saw the pic of ‘Montana’s Smokehouse’, I first thought this post was about smoked meat recipes.
Though in a way it could be considered a food post….
Mustang Bobby
@Tbone: I remember seeing the same look on flatland frat boys forty years ago when they showed up in Estes Park and drank Coors, thinking they had stumbled on the nectar of the gods. But what it was was the altitude, not the beer, and they could have been drinking well water and gotten the same buzz.
The mystique was lost when Coors went nationwide and the boys at Fort Lauderdale found out that they could get the same buzz from PBR at half the price.
hoosierspud
The Idaho State troopers on I-84 are having a good time stopping people they think are smoking or transporting marijuana between WA and CO. One guy in his 60’s was stopped twice. The Spokesman-Review released the recorded transcript of the second stop and it was pure harassment on the part of the cop. At the end, the driver thanked the cop for not planting drugs in his truck. He’s suing the ID State Police.
The second guy, late 50’s, was driving to a business appointment and was stopped for having his windows rolled down.