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The reasons to oppose decriminalizing marijuana are becoming fewer and fewer by the day. The war on drugs, specifically marijuana, is coming to an end sooner rather than later, and it’s all thanks to statistics like this one.
According to the Denver Post, outdated, sagging schools in the state of Colorado will be receiving a $300 million boost from pot sales and other taxes.
In Southeast Denver, new homes are being built off Interstate 70, with a state-of-the-art preK-12 school on the horizon, all of which is being paid for with money collected from legal marijuana taxation.
via Denver Post:
Marijuana excise taxes were used for the first time in 2013-14. In that year, more than $3 million was injected into BEST school construction projects. Nearly $24 million was used the next year. By 2015-16, $80 million in marijuana tax revenue was injected into the BEST program. That included a one-time $40 million payment after Colorado voters decided two years ago to keep and spend more than $66 million in excess marijuana sales revenue.
The state says another $40 million was injected into BEST projects in 2016-17 and another $40 million is projected for the next fiscal year.Other sources have fed the BEST program, including spillover from the Colorado Lottery and from the Colorado Land Board. In all, BEST has funded $1.2 billion for high-need construction projects since 2009.
According to the report, about all of the 27 recipients of the nearly $300 million in BEST construction grants for 2017-2018 were in rural school districts.
Others districts that received funding include the Brush School District, which got more $60 million for a new middle school and to renovate its high school, and Del Norte, which received $45 million for a new preK-12 school.
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