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Editorial
Colorado extends long tradition with legalized marijuana
Thursday, July 10, 2014
A certain ritual used to be part of every 18-year-old's life in certain parts of Southwest Nebraska -- a trip to Julesburg, Colorado, to partake of beer with 3.2 percent alcohol, legal for young people of that age.
We don't know whatever happened to the 3.2 beer ritual, but a new one has appeared to take its place.
Three months into Colorado's legalization of recreational marijuana, a study shows that two out of five recreational marijuana retail sales in the Denver area were made to out-of-state visitors.
In the mountains and other vacation spots, visitors to Colorado account for 90 percent of recreational dispensary traffic.
Not surprisingly, few medical marijuana users are switching to recreational pot, since the latter is taxed at a much higher rate. That is expected to affect state revenue projections.
Also unsurprising is the fact that most marijuana is consumed by heavy daily users. According to information gleaned from Colorado's Marijuana Inventory Tracking System and other data, a third of all the state's users smoke it less than once a month, using just 0.3 percent of the total market.
The top 22 percent of marijuana users, however, account for nearly 67 percent of the total demand.
Overall, medical and recreational combined, the total market demand for marijuana is 130 metric tons a year, 121 metric tons consumed by residents and almost nine metric tons for visitors.
Those estimates were nearly a third higher that earlier projections by the state Department of Revenue, and, at an average market rate of $220 per ounce, that translates to big bucks for growers, retailers and the state.
Inevitably, problems with marijuana will manifest themselves in individual and societal problems, just as they do with alcohol and other drugs, legal and illegal.
While the 18-year-olds of yesterday enjoyed their 3.2 beer in Colorado, their fathers coveted the Coors beer that wasn't available in Nebraska, at the time.
Now, their children and grandchildren are helping maintain Colorful Colorado's reputation as a great place to go get stupid.