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New scholarships will be funded by marijuana tax approved by Colorado county voters

Pueblo County is full of pot. Much of it legal – it has the world’s largest outdoor marijuana farm.

That legal pot will be a tad more expensive now, with voters this week approving a 5 percent excise tax whose revenue will fund scholarships for students in the Colorado county, The Denver Post reports.

It’s expected to raise $3.5 million by 2020, money reserved for “any high school senior in the county who attends one of two public colleges in the county,” and the county expects 400 students a year will get about $1,000 each.

Marijuana is currently taxed at a 15 percent rate, and alcohol taxes also support scholarships, the paper said.

The county has a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the state (just a coincidence?), and it sees salvation in Mary Jane – hence unusually generous tax-incentive and regulatory packages for growers:

Most Colorado counties, including Denver County, do not allow outdoor marijuana growing.

The result is that most Colorado pot plants are grown in warehouses under expensive lighting, resulting in plants that are shielded from public view but also prone to mites and mildews because they’re locked in enclosed spaces. …

Even Colorado counties that don’t expressly prohibit outdoor marijuana growing commonly have climates inhospitable to weed. Pueblo County is located on the state’s sunny and flat southeastern plains.

Read the story.

h/t Inside Higher Ed

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