Weed is helping pretty much everyone in Colorado, except those that need it the most.
Colorado, while progressive and unspeakably good looking, is a state of contradictions.
The marijuana industry rakes in billions in profit and tax revenue, yet several Colorado cities such as Boulder and Denver report some of the worst treatment of homeless people in the country. It seems that while we've perfected one system, we've let down a lot of people by mishandling the other. The revenue from legal weed has undoubtedly enriched Colorado's communities, schools and public systems in countless ways, but that money has, for some reason, left the states's homeless out of the picture.
Now, the city of Aurora — of all places — has found a way to channel some of its weed profit towards helping the people who need it the most. According to Huffington Post, the city is dedicating a whopping $1.5 million towards helping the area's homeless.That's a whole third of the $4.5 million the city expects to make in marijuana tax over the next two years.
That's a lot of loot. We never thought we'd say this, but fuck yeah, Aurora. Also, congratulations on being the fittest city in the country, too … quite a feat for having one of the highest crime rates in Colorado and lots of Juggalos. But like we said: Colorado = contradictions.
About $200,000 of Aurora's very muscular pot tax money will go to Colfax Community Network, an organization that works with low-income and homeless families temporarily living in motels. The rest will be used to supply nonprofits with vans to assist in "metro-wide homeless outreach" and more.
"We wanted to be able to show citizens that we are having a positive impact on the community," said Bob Roth, a city councilman and former chairman of Aurora's legal weed committee, to Denver Post.
Because, after all, schools, which are the main beneficiary of Colorado's pot tax, are only a part of the community. Too often, we focus on the people that we can see (kids), but ignore those we pretend we don't (homeless people). Both are valuable parts of society, and we're just glad that our incurable dragon zong habit can make life better for the both of them.
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