Colorado's Green Initiative

In case you didn't get the joke in the title, I'm not referring to an environmentally friendly program, but rather to Colorado's recreational marijuana. In recent years (despite California being the first state to make the drug available medically and Oregon being the first to decriminalize it,) Colorado has been the marijuana trendsetter. And that role gained new meaning when, on November 6th, 2012, Colorado voted in favor of Amendment 64, making marijuana legal in the recreational sense. On January 1st, 2013, dispensaries opened across the state to anyone 21 and over. And while many people oppose this decision, what can't be argued is that it's going to make Colorado a lot of money. In just the first day, 37 or so operating dispensaries reported collective sales of over $1 million, despite the 25% sales/excise tax. What does this mean for the Colorado government? The state is projected to rake in $70 million in tax revenue from weed sales this year, much of which is going to fund schools.

Despite the enormous tax revenue, many disagree with the decision to legalize marijuana, and both sides of the argument have strong points. However, in my opinion, the pros far outweigh the cons. I could go on for days and days about pro-legalization arguments, so I'll just give what I believe to be the three most important ones: racial profiling, tax revenue, and freedom. Two of those are very general, so I'll elaborate, starting with the least vague of the three, tax revenue. I've already spoken briefly about this, but the bottom line is that marijuana will make millions, possibly billions, for the government, which it desperately needs. The $70 million figure is just the very beginning, and the good that money can do in schools is near incalculable. In a down economy, and one in which marijuana users have been willing to pay absurdly high prices illegally, the government can throw very high taxes on legal weed and still see business boom.

My other two arguments, racial profiling and freedom, seem very vague at first glance, so I'll begin with the former. The U.S.'s draconian drug laws are something I have written about before, and they have an impact on more than just the big drug dealers. These drug laws have an extremely negative impact on casual drug users, especially with a drug as commonly used as marijuana. And when the criminal possession amount is so low, it's very easy to pick and choose who is persecuted for possession and who isn't. And often, the people who are "chosen" are poor minorities. Drug laws are, frankly, abused. They are abused to constrain minorities, and without these laws, the rate of minorities (and people in general) who are jailed for non-violent offenses will go way down, saving lives, and saving the state a lot of money. My final point, very blatantly put, is freedom, and this argument is backed by a very libertarian philosophy; people should be able to do what they want, as long as they don't hurt others, and this includes the use of marijuana. The government shouldn't be making our decisions for us. If people want to use a drug, especially that is less harmful than legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, they should be able to, plain and simple.

Colorado made history last November, and we are seeing the effects very clearly already in the new year: legalization is working. The state is making money, people are happy with their new found freedom, jobs and being created, and Colorado jails will soon be without many non-violent offenders. We'll have to wait and see how this turns out, but so far, the forecast is sunny (green) skies ahead.

For more info on how legalization is working so far, click here.