Unit 2: Colorado stash: $184M in marijuana taxes

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/20/news/economy/marijuana-taxes-colorado/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Colorado expects to make about $184 million in tax revenue from marijuana in the first 18 months after legislation. Ironically, a majority of the money is said to go towards educating kids to avoid the use of marijuana. Colorada's Joint Budget Committee expects the revenue from retail and medical marijuana from January 1st to June 30th of the next fiscal year to be around $610 million. The state taxes marijuana three times- during the production, selling and buying.

Marijuana was even more popular than state officials had projected it to be. During the first couple days of being legal, may sellers ran out or even rationed their supplies.The sale of Marijuana was an all-cash sale until last week when the federal government gave banks the right to provide financial services to legal Marijuana producers. Marijuana is legal in Colorado for adults 21 or older. Colorado residents with state-issued identification can purchase up to one ounce. Out-of-state residents can purchase up to a quarter ounce.

The public opinion of citizens of the United States is evenly distributed between believing Marijuana should be legal and the other half of citizens that believe it should be illegal. Legalizing such a drug could have the potential to bring in a profit for the country due to the extremely high taxation that could be placed upon the drug. The United States could take the same approach that Colorado started by taxing the drug three times between the stages of production, selling, and buying.

On the other hand, the legalizing Marijuana could question the safety of the drug or how well we could control who uses the drug. It is a common fact that alcohol, for instance, is often consumed by underaged drinkers. If we can't control who consumes other drugs, some citizens might question how we would be able to control this drug, as well.

While public opinion will never be the same, the government is in a constant struggle to balance the situations. Pleasing everyone's opinions is impossible, but identifying key concepts on each side could put the scale at a more even balance. The way to do this is through polls and surveys to grasp a concept of the majority opinion. That way, the government's decisions, either way, will affect a larger amount of people in a positive way.