I'm hoping I never go back to smoking anything, and I'm not convinced (yet) that fully legalizing marijuana is such a great idea - but all that said, so far so good. At least it seems Colorado is making it work.
From Nation of Change:
What seems pretty cool tho' is that first, you're generating some decent revenues (both private and public) which pumps up the dollar circulation in many hundreds of localities, which gooses lotsa local economies, which makes for more jobs, which makes for more taxpayers, which makes for better revenue streams etc etc - all of which means it gets a little easier to make that big ol' wheel go 'round.
But the thing that really stands out for me is that Colorado is reporting a fair drop in crime. There's nothing totally concrete about linking pot sales to a drop in crime - altho' in my experience, it's a lot harder to do all that macho shit when you're stoned - but it's not outa the question and anyway, I think the obvious benefit is that the Law Dogs can stop wasting time and energy and money trying to enforce a buncha really stoopid Pot Rules. Plus, we should see a drop in the truly shitty activities of the Cop Entrepreneur - the kinda crap where cops make a bust solely because they can confiscate the property of a "Drug Kingpin" in order to pay for a coupla cruisers or body armor or because they can pick up a surplus MRAP left over from Iraq and Afghanistan, but they'll need a few extra hundred K so they can qualify for the matching funds from their buddies at DHS or DEA or BATF or whoever else is sending their kids to Preppy Mills by funneling public dollars into private coffers.
So anything that kinda mellows us out, and potentially puts a hole in the crony-go-round bullshit that is The War On Drugs? Sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
From Nation of Change:
Not counting medicinal weed sales, Colorado sold nearly $19 million in their recreational weed market in the month of March, and $1.9 million of that goes straight into government coffers and towards building schools. At this pace, according to PolicyMic, Colorado will make $30 million this year in pot taxes alone.--and--
Crime rates in Colorado have dropped by 10.6% while Dunkin Donuts has begun expanding its brand in the state (really). It looks like a really good future for people living in Colorado, or any state that legalizes both medical and recreational marijuana – though it is admittedly too early to tell.The cherry on top of this tax-generating cake? Crime rates are also down in Colorado, so while kids are hopefully going to get a better education, the government (idealistically) will spend more money improving infrastructure and other business opportunities for Colorado citizens, and unemployment rates are plummeting. The Colorado police can take a little rest from their duties.We'll see what happens down the road, of course - the likelihood of Murphy's Law kicking in with a powerful vengeance increases by at least an order of magnitude when you put politicians in charge of just about anything.
What seems pretty cool tho' is that first, you're generating some decent revenues (both private and public) which pumps up the dollar circulation in many hundreds of localities, which gooses lotsa local economies, which makes for more jobs, which makes for more taxpayers, which makes for better revenue streams etc etc - all of which means it gets a little easier to make that big ol' wheel go 'round.
But the thing that really stands out for me is that Colorado is reporting a fair drop in crime. There's nothing totally concrete about linking pot sales to a drop in crime - altho' in my experience, it's a lot harder to do all that macho shit when you're stoned - but it's not outa the question and anyway, I think the obvious benefit is that the Law Dogs can stop wasting time and energy and money trying to enforce a buncha really stoopid Pot Rules. Plus, we should see a drop in the truly shitty activities of the Cop Entrepreneur - the kinda crap where cops make a bust solely because they can confiscate the property of a "Drug Kingpin" in order to pay for a coupla cruisers or body armor or because they can pick up a surplus MRAP left over from Iraq and Afghanistan, but they'll need a few extra hundred K so they can qualify for the matching funds from their buddies at DHS or DEA or BATF or whoever else is sending their kids to Preppy Mills by funneling public dollars into private coffers.
So anything that kinda mellows us out, and potentially puts a hole in the crony-go-round bullshit that is The War On Drugs? Sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
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