Colorado students given $420K in marijuana tax-funded scholarships

Marijuana taxes paid the lion’s share of the new Pueblo County Scholarship Fund that on Tuesday awarded 210 students $2,000 each for the 2017-18 academic year.

But Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace said much of the credit is due to the southern Colorado sunshine that blasted those students at the scholarship award ceremony held on the steps of the county courthouse.

The region’s abundant natural resource has made the county a hub for the burgeoning outdoor- and greenhouse-grown cannabis industry, Pace told The Cannabist. An excise tax levied on the plant’s first point of wholesale transfer paid for what Pueblo County calls a first-of-its-kind scholarship program.

Last year the excise tax was 2 percent, Pace said. It’s scheduled to grow 1 percent annually, eventually topping out at 5 percent. Half of the tax dollars collected go to the scholarship fund, with the other half allocated for community enhancement projects.

Read more: http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/06/21/colorado-students-given-420000-marijuana-tax-funded-scholarships/82072/