Drug Money

Well, some really good news out of Colorado, and the same will no doubt apply to Washington and, eventually, every  state that decides to legalize marijuana.  Sales have been so brisk that the state expects to take in way more money in taxes than they expected.  Up to $100 million, which is not shabby at all for a state which has a population of just a little over 5 million people.  They could, if they wanted to, just give every resident of the state $20, which would be nice, but wouldn’t go very far.

Half of them would probably just spend it on more pot, but that’s putting the money back into the economy and it gets taxed again, so it’s a win-win.

$100 million is probably enough to fix up any old, derelict, abandoned homes in the state (giving some people jobs in the process, again, pumping money back into the economy) and give those homes to homeless people, thus solving the problems of homelessness, urban blight, and joblessness.  Win-win-win.

$100 million would be enough to set up a really nice public transportation system in all of Colorado’s major cities (which is like 2 or 3 cities), with comfortable, electric busses.  A few people would get jobs as drivers, maybe you could even go totally high class and hire some stewardesses.  So, jobs, improving the environment, getting all the stoners off the road (really, most stoners would be very happy with this solution), and once it’s set up it would probably  pay for itself, maybe even make a profit.  Win-win-win-win.

$100 million could buy nice, new computers for all Colorado classrooms, repair all the potholes in Colorado roads, or create a few new state parks.

So, what do you think they’ll spend the money on?  According to this article, Governor John Hickenlooper’s spending plan included $45.5 million for youth use prevention, $40.4 million for substance abuse treatment and $12.4 million for public health.

So, nearly half of this tax windfall is going to go on bumper stickers, T-shirts, and a bit of overtime pay for cops to go to elementary schools and lie their asses off telling kids how evil marijuana is.  Lose-lose.