The Cannabis Industry is Revitalizing Cities with Dying Economies

<blockquote><p>Marijuana was once an illegal drug costing cities millions of dollars to police and control&period; Now helping those same cities revitalizing struggling economies&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Across the United States of America&comma; several states have legalized the use&comma; possession&comma; and sale of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;Cannabis&lowbar;&lpar;drug&rpar;">marijuana<&sol;a>&period; Despite the positive impact of marijuana legalization&comma; there are still several cities which aren’t as eager as the rest to dip their toes into the marijuana pool&period; In eight of the states which have voted to legalize marijuana&comma; some local cities have still chosen to keep their towns free of marijuana&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Despite the hundreds of success stories surrounding the legalization of marijuana&comma; many small towns have fears that legalized marijuana will lead to an increase in crime and threaten their way of life&period; According to a new <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;csupueblo&period;edu&sol;institute-of-cannabis-research&sol;index&period;html">marijuana report<&sol;a> published by Colorado State University&comma; this attitude towards marijuana legalization could be very misguided&period; The main findings of the report found that the complete opposite was&comma; in fact&comma; true&comma; with local economies thriving surrounding the legalization of marijuana&period; This growth in local economies feeds itself with the creation of new jobs and increased security without having to draw on local infrastructure to enforce public safety&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In the beginning&comma; when Colorado first moved towards the legalization of marijuana&comma; there were definitely those among the state that had concerns&period; Despite the fact that the majority of voters were in favor of the legalization of marijuana&comma; there was still a large portion that assumed that legalizing weed would be the beginning of the end for life as they knew it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For one small city legal cannabis has been an entirely positive experience&period; Pueblo&comma; with a population of over 100&comma;000&comma; had struggled for decades after the economic collapse of the steel industry&period; Before the legalization of marijuana in 2014&comma; Pueblo’s biggest employers were the hospitals and prisons&period; With an unemployment rate higher than any other city in the state&comma; Pueblo had reached rock bottom&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Luckily for Pueblo&comma; there was new hope on the horizon&comma; marijuana&period; The study&comma; which was a collaborative effort between the Industrial Hemp Research Foundation&comma; the Colorado Department of Agriculture&comma; and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has shown that <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;indiva&period;ca&sol;blog&sol;news&sol;industry&sol;legal-cannabis-expected-to-be-57-billion&sol;">legalized marijuana<&sol;a> boosted the economy by around &dollar;58M in 2016&period; They didn’t achieve this massive increase in revenue for nothing&comma; however&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The city of Pueblo invested over &dollar;23M between 2014 and 2016 to lay the foundations for legalized marijuana sales&period; Despite this massive investment by the city&comma; they still claimed over &dollar;35M in economic benefits after their spending&period; It doesn’t look like stopping either&period; Conservative estimates by many involved in the marijuana industry believe that over &dollar;100M could be made in the next three years&period; When you think of where Puebla was just five years ago&comma; legal marijuana can’t be all that bad&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">What do you think about the legalization of marijuana&quest; Feel free to comment below with your thoughts and feelings&period; We would love to hear how you believe marijuana could benefit your city&comma; state&comma; or country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;