Boyd Crowder
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Known for having more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks since 2011, Denver has been the subject of countless national headlines — and late-night punchlines — since it became the site of the world's first legal sale of recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2014.
Hype aside, the economic upsides include significant job creation and increased tax revenues, to the tune of $44 million for the state of Colorado (on nearly $600 million in sales) and about $10 million more for Denver, a good bit of which will go into education. Legalization also lured a wave of entrepreneurs.
These entrepreneurs are growing marijuana, selling marijuana and making marijuana software. They're developing better ways to grow indoors and researching marijuana's medical efficacy and testing marijuana. They're creating marijuana-infused products — everything from cookies to sodas to bath salts to lotions — and innovative machinery to extract oil from marijuana plants to make such products.
Denver City Councilman Chris Nevitt's district encompasses the "Green Mile" stretch of South Broadway.
"During the Great Recession, two things saved our ass," he says. "One was the enormous investments the city was making in bond-funded projects. The other was marijuana."
Near-insolvent property owners had a new class of business as a market, and it kept many of them from defaulting on loans for retail and industrial space. "That can only be good for Denver," Nevitt says.
Not that there aren't any quibbles or complaints. The top post-legalization concern of residents was stoned driving, according to a Denver Post poll, but the effect on the overall crime rate is likewise at worst a wash, with Denver's murder rate and auto fatalities dropping notably in 2014.
Another concern is the impact on kids, but there's no definitive evidence that usage is up among those under the legal age of 21. There has been an observable uptick in homelessness and a higher rate of unemployment among twentysomethings.
Jobs taking root
Tim Cullen and Ralph Morgan own two marijuana dispensaries in Denver: Colorado Harvest Company and Evergreen Apothecary.
The latter store is located on the so-called Green Mile. There are about 20 recreational and medical dispensaries on this two-mile stretch south of Interstate 25, the highest concentration of legal marijuana shops on the planet. (A clause on that superlative: Cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen have essentially decriminalized marijuana without expressly legalizing it.)
Cullen and Morgan recently commissioned University of Denver's Jack Strauss to do an economic impact study for their dispensaries, with nearly 50 employees and about $12 million in sales between them.
Strauss found that the combined economic impact of the two stores was seven times the average retail store or restaurant in the metro area for 2014. Tax revenue from just these two stores totaled $1.07 million for the state and $390,000 for the city — 10 times the average retail establishment or restaurant — and payroll was eight times the average.
Nevitt estimates that the industry created "tens of thousands" jobs for Denver when the city needed them most. "They are primary jobs — they take seeds and fertilizer and water and create marijuana — and we need that."
Read the full article here: http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/030315-denver-legal-marijuana-impact-img.aspx
Known for having more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks since 2011, Denver has been the subject of countless national headlines — and late-night punchlines — since it became the site of the world's first legal sale of recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2014.
Hype aside, the economic upsides include significant job creation and increased tax revenues, to the tune of $44 million for the state of Colorado (on nearly $600 million in sales) and about $10 million more for Denver, a good bit of which will go into education. Legalization also lured a wave of entrepreneurs.
These entrepreneurs are growing marijuana, selling marijuana and making marijuana software. They're developing better ways to grow indoors and researching marijuana's medical efficacy and testing marijuana. They're creating marijuana-infused products — everything from cookies to sodas to bath salts to lotions — and innovative machinery to extract oil from marijuana plants to make such products.
Denver City Councilman Chris Nevitt's district encompasses the "Green Mile" stretch of South Broadway.
"During the Great Recession, two things saved our ass," he says. "One was the enormous investments the city was making in bond-funded projects. The other was marijuana."
Near-insolvent property owners had a new class of business as a market, and it kept many of them from defaulting on loans for retail and industrial space. "That can only be good for Denver," Nevitt says.
Not that there aren't any quibbles or complaints. The top post-legalization concern of residents was stoned driving, according to a Denver Post poll, but the effect on the overall crime rate is likewise at worst a wash, with Denver's murder rate and auto fatalities dropping notably in 2014.
Another concern is the impact on kids, but there's no definitive evidence that usage is up among those under the legal age of 21. There has been an observable uptick in homelessness and a higher rate of unemployment among twentysomethings.
Jobs taking root
Tim Cullen and Ralph Morgan own two marijuana dispensaries in Denver: Colorado Harvest Company and Evergreen Apothecary.
The latter store is located on the so-called Green Mile. There are about 20 recreational and medical dispensaries on this two-mile stretch south of Interstate 25, the highest concentration of legal marijuana shops on the planet. (A clause on that superlative: Cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen have essentially decriminalized marijuana without expressly legalizing it.)
Cullen and Morgan recently commissioned University of Denver's Jack Strauss to do an economic impact study for their dispensaries, with nearly 50 employees and about $12 million in sales between them.
Strauss found that the combined economic impact of the two stores was seven times the average retail store or restaurant in the metro area for 2014. Tax revenue from just these two stores totaled $1.07 million for the state and $390,000 for the city — 10 times the average retail establishment or restaurant — and payroll was eight times the average.
Nevitt estimates that the industry created "tens of thousands" jobs for Denver when the city needed them most. "They are primary jobs — they take seeds and fertilizer and water and create marijuana — and we need that."
Read the full article here: http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/030315-denver-legal-marijuana-impact-img.aspx
