cannabisnews.com: Colorado Raises $150 Million From Marijuana
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Colorado Raises $150 Million From Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on September 06, 2015 at 19:21:01 PT
By Michelle Toh, Staff 	Writer
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Colorado has brought in more than $150 million in marijuana tax revenue, according to official state data. That doesn't make it a budgetary panacea, warn lawmakers. "The big lesson we tell other states is you probably shouldn't legalize marijuana if you want to make money – that's not why you do it," said J. Skyler McKinley, deputy director of the governor's Office of Marijuana Coordination, to the Huffington Post. "You do it because you think that a regulated marketplace might be safer than an unregulated marketplace, or you believe that the war on drugs didn't work."
A representative from Washington – which has raised about $83 million in taxes since becoming the second state to legalize marijuana sales – agreed."The legalization initiative was not driven by a desire for a revenue, but it has provided a small assist for our state budget," said Jaime Smith, deputy communications director for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, to the Huffington Post. "When you’re looking for billions of dollars, tens of millions doesn’t solve the problem – but it certainly doesn’t hurt."Back in February, CNN reported that sales tax had brought in only $53 million in Colorado, a figure that fell short of analysts' projections and suggested that consumers were turned off by the 28 percent tax on legal pot.But this summer, state officials reported that marijuana tax revenues were up nearly 100 percent, according to ABC7 Denver. Revenue jumped from $25 million in the first five months of 2014 to $44 million in the same period this year.Colorado began directing some marijuana revenue toward school and research programs in May, including providing grants to public school districts and charter schools, an education official told The Huffington Post. Almost $24 million was allocated to the Building Excellent Schools Today program, said Kevin Huber."I have no problem paying taxes if they’re going to schools," local pot consumer Maddy Beaumier told Counter Current News as he shopped at a marijuana dispensary.But while marijuana is pouring millions of dollars into Colorado's treasury – over $152 million since 2012, according to state revenue reports of sales taxes and licensing fees – it comes with its own high regulatory costs, warn lawmakers."Our philosophy has been that marijuana pays its own way," said Colorado's Mr. McKinley. "Every dime we bring in from legalization is dedicated to the cost of legalization. That's regulatory framework first, then public education campaigns about safe and responsible use and then prevention and treatment programs."Currently, Colorado is facing an unusual problem for a state: too much revenue.Colorado's "Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights" requires the state to issue refunds to taxpayers if revenue exceeds projections, reports The New York Times. Coloradans will vote in November on whether the state should spend the money or return it to citizens.Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)Author: Michelle Toh, Staff 	WriterPublished: September 6, 2015Copyright: 2015 The Christian Science Publishing SocietyContact: letters csmonitor.comWebsite: http://www.csmonitor.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/yJo1SZE0CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on September 11, 2015 at 11:42:56 PT
The War on Drugs
"It is wrapped in the livery of Heaven, but it comes to serve the devil." To borrow a phrase that fits all too well.Drug War Victims
http://ssdp.org/resources/drug-war-victims/And they don't want to stop. In fact their icons of virtue, Bill Bennet and John Walters are begging for more victims in a recently published co-diatribe of theirs.In Texas, police search woman’s vagina for marijuanahttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/13/in-texas-police-stick-hand-up-womans-vagina-to-search-for-marijuana/"There is none so blind as he who will not see." 
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on September 10, 2015 at 10:41:13 PT
Sam, thank you so much!
Love those quotes.We did use many dead on quotes wisely and well during this struggle, didn't we? I don't see the skill used much beyond Kap these days, but those are beauties. Thanks. Roger Q. Milllshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Q._Mills"In the 1880s, when Prohibition sentiment was rising in Texas, Mills refused to make any political concessions. Reportedly, he declared in one speech, "If lightning were to strike all the drunkards, there would not be a live Prohibition party in Texas." (Mills claimed to have been misquoted: he had said "there would not be many [members of the party] left.") Elsewhere he was said to have vowed, "A good sluice of pine top whiskey would improve the morals of the Dallas [Prohibition] convention and the average Prohibitionist." (Mills again offered a correction: he had not used the words "average Prohibitionist," he insisted)."
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on September 09, 2015 at 18:05:10 PT
The GCW
I love your description, so true, it's like a parasitic organism that feeds on productive citizens. Brings to mind this passage, one of my favorites from the "quotes" file..."Prohibition was introduced as a fraud; it has been nursed as a fraud. It is wrapped in the livery of Heaven, but it comes to serve the devil. It comes to regulate by law our appetites and our daily lives. It comes to tear down liberty and build up fanaticism, hypocrisy, and intolerance. It comes to confiscate by legislative decree the property of many of our fellow citizens. It comes to send spies, detectives, and informers into our homes; to have us arrested and carried before courts and condemned to fines and imprisonments. It comes to dissipate the sunlight of happiness, peace, and prosperity in which we are now living and to fill our land with alienations, estrangements, and bitterness. It comes to bring us evil-- only evil-- and that continually. Let us rise in our might as one and overwhelm it with such indignation that we shall never hear of it again as long as grass grows and water runs."Roger Q. Mills, 1887
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Comment #3 posted by observer on September 08, 2015 at 11:43:58 PT
Christian Science Monitor, MSM Gov't Propaganda
Notice how the "Christian" Science Monitor attempts to downplay the good news. At the same time, this "Christian" beacon of scientific truth shoots the false and dire predictions of prohibitionists down the memory-hole. Predictions that the doom of Colorado was at hand should the duped, imbecile voters of Colorado legalize pot.Of course, in Police-State-Land, voters are only "fooled" when they don't vote to sacrifice more freedom, money and lives to their police state. Whenever laws are passed that flush traditional freedoms away: that's sensible and righteous, in a pig's eye. Here's a news item out today you can be pretty sure the mockingbird MSM will studiously ignore: smoking pot cuts bladder cancer rates in half. The study somehow escaped the notice of the censors. https://news.google.com/news/section?scoring=d&q=Bladder+Cancer+marijuanaThat's smoking pot too, by the way: so the propagandists - police-state toadies - can't come along and cow you with, "Well, we need to wait for more corrupt government 'research' to 'prove' this and then for big pharma to make a purified, patented pill for you to take by prescription, maybe, someday. Bladder cancer takes a huge toll in lives every year, and you'd think this news would be shouted from the rooftops - if the US mainstream press were what it pretends to be, instead of what it is. 
http://drugnewsbot.org
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on September 07, 2015 at 06:54:54 PT
Cannabis prohibition caters to the devil.
"...that's not why you do it," said J. Skyler McKinley, ...."I'd add that You do it because caging responsible adults for using a relatively safe, God given plant is vile and vulgar.Even if the war on cannabis worked, it's the wrong thing to do!Unless catering to the devil; then of course, why quit now?-0-RE-legalizing cannabis is claiming high ground.Cannabis prohibition is low class, uncouth. Repulsive for civilized society. Dogs which eat dogs, licking the bones. Vampires. Amoeba.
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Comment #1 posted by keninsj on September 06, 2015 at 20:23:15 PT:
Revenue
I wonder how much revenue is generated that is directly related to the industry, but not counted. Tourism, sales of paraphernalia ETC, I imagine it may be significant.
Also the saving from not prosecuting and imprisoning people. Either way, the article is correct, you shouldn't legalize for the money, but to end the horrendous harm that prohibition has created
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