In the decade following adult-use cannabis legalization in Colorado, the state has sold $13.4 billion in sales, leading to $2.2 billion in taxes collected, 9 News reports. Brian Vicente, one of the co-directors of the campaign to pass Amendment 64, which legalized cannabis for adults 21 and older, said the reforms have been “an unqualified success.”
Mason Tvert, the campaign’s other co-director, told 9 News that Colorado’s legalization win at the ballot box 10 years ago “inspired a lot of discussions and got a lot of elected leaders both in the U.S. and abroad examining their cannabis policies.”
Since 2012, when Colorado joined Washington state in passing the reforms, 17 other states and Washington, D.C. have reformed their cannabis policies and allowed adult-use sales.
“I feel like the Colorado model should be exported to other states and other countries and the world would be better off.” — Vicente to 9 News
In Colorado, tax dollars derived from adult-use cannabis sales are used for public school funding and sent to the state’s marijuana fund which earmarks the money for healthcare, health education, drug abuse prevention and treatment programs, and law enforcement.
Vicente added that while additional states pass the reforms, more pressure is being put on the federal government to overhaul its cannabis policies. Five states will vote during the midterm elections on whether to pass adult-use cannabis reforms.
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