Colorado becomes world’s first legal, fully regulated market for marijuana

[Hawaiian Punch]

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/national/colo-1st-legal-recreational-pot-market-article-1.1356799

Call it the mile-high state.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper made history Tuesday, signing two bills that make his state the first place in the world to fully regulate the recreational use of marijuana for adults.

Flanked by legislators and pot legalization activists at the Colorado State Capitol, Hickenlooper signed two bills that lay out the framework for marijuana retail sales, cultivation, and product manufacturing. In the November election, Colorado passed Amendment 64, a voter initiative that legalized recreational use of the drug by residents over 21.

“Certainly, this industry will create jobs,” Hickenlooper said. “Whether it’s good for the brand of our state is still up in the air. But the voters passed Amendment 64 by a clear majority. That’s why we’re going to implement it as effectively as we possibly can.”

RELATED: ILLINOIS LEGALIZES MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The new regulations enact sales and excise taxes on marijuana that will pay for the construction of new public schools.

“In 2014, the new excise tax is expected to raise $24.1 million,” Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, told the Daily News. “All of that money will go toward public school construction.”


Dmitriy Norov/Getty Images/Vetta

The state expects to see law enforcement savings of $12 million next year because of the legalization.*

Tvert said that the state also anticipates that it will see $12 million next year in law enforcement savings because of the legalization of marijuana.

A wholesale tax on recreational marijuana was capped at 15% until the year 2017 as a way to ensure that prices of the drug will be kept low.

RELATED: AMANDA BYNES SPEAKS OUT: 'I DON'T DO DRUGS'

“The idea is to put the underground marijuana market out of business,” Tvert said.

The proceeds from the wholesale tax will go into the state’s general fund, providing Colorado with yet another revenue windfall.

An independent analysis by the Colorado Center on Law & Policy found that after another $22.5 million in revenues from state and local sales taxes on marijuana were factored in, the state could expect a to see “$60 million in total combined savings and additional revenue for Colorado’s budget with a potential for this number to double after 2017.”

Tvert said that other state legislators are looking at Colorado’s regulatory structure as a blueprint for how to raise revenue should their own residents move to legalize marijuana.

"Colorado is demonstrating to the rest of the nation that it is possible to adopt a marijuana policy that reflects the public's increasing support for making marijuana legal for adults," Tvert said in an email. "Marijuana prohibition is on its way out in Colorado, and it is only a matter of time before many more states follow its lead."

 

[acri1]

 

[NoMayo15]

@ RELATED: AMANDA BYNES SPEAKS OUT: 'I DON'T DO DRUGS'

 

[newworldafro]

"Rocky Mountain High" .........how many marketing schemes will be using a similar phrase?? ..
Between tourism and hemp cultivation this state is going to be watched by a lot of folks looking like this

 

[chkmeout]

"Rocky Mountain High" .........how many marketing schmes will be using a similar phrase?? ..
Between tourism and hemp cultivation this state is going to be watched by a lot of folks ....

this could be big

 

[FluffyCorleone]

Now would be a good time to get into that sort of business before it becomes saturated/overcrowded. Imagine having a monopoly on this shyt.

 

[YouMadd?]

Now would be a good time to get into that sort of business before it becomes saturated/overcrowded. Imagine having a monopoly on this shyt.

Cali, Colorado, and a few other places have had an established marijuana economy for years already. Anywhere medical marijuana has been legal is pretty much established... However, getting the jump on states that are on the verge of changing their laws would be a fantastic idea...

I think starting "Grow schools" would be the most lucrative to be honest...

 

[Battle Beast]

Doesn't fed law have precedence over state law? Feds can come in and impose their will if they are really up to it. That's good news that Colorado is legal statewide for recreational use a lot of potheads gonna have a pilgrimage there

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

I know where I'm going on vacay

 

[NovelThug]

Allah blesses Colorado.

 

[daze23]

Cali, Colorado, and a few other places have had an established marijuana economy for years already. Anywhere medical marijuana has been legal is pretty much established... However, getting the jump on states that are on the verge of changing their laws would be a fantastic idea...

I think starting "Grow schools" would be the most lucrative to be honest...

there's a lot of other things that could go along with it. Krispy Kreme...

I wonder if you could open some kind of 'coffee shop', 'smoker's den', with bongs, vaporizers, hookahs and shyt. a place to buy tree, hang out, and smoke. you could have some video games and shyt too

 

[babylon1]

 

[Mr. Somebody]

No one should go to prison for this. This is a progressive initiative, until demonic corporations modify these plants into something more sinister than they already are.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

there's a lot of other things that could go along with it. Krispy Kreme...

I wonder if you could open some kind of 'coffee shop', 'smoker den', with bongs, vaporizers, hookahs and shyt. a place to buy tree, hang out, and smoke. you could have some video games and shyt too

oculus rift+ weed hookah style bar

:silviosmh:

 

[unit321]

Well, it's a facade. So people think the black market is going to go away and this will be the first state to prove it false.

I would not doubt it if a Boeing 747 flew in to Denver direct from Mexico with nothing in the cargo other than tons of pot from one of the Mexican drug cartels. It's going to be a pandora's box. Everything from an increase in pot-related birth defects, untaxed pot black market, pot-related DUI vehicular deaths, increase in lung-related problems due to marijuana-smoking.

Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, also probably stated, Dude, like flights to Amsterdam were getting like... like expensive.