Colorado's marijuana sales skyrocketed since marijuana legalization took place and dispensaries opened. As of the latest update, 25 students will be receiving college scholarships in the United States funded by legal marijuana taxes.
As per USA Today's report, 25 students were given a chance to win college scholarship grants. The college scholarship was awarded by Pueblo County. It was cited that the funds to be used to support the scholarship would be derived from legal marijuana sales.
Colorado residents have benefited from the State's marijuana sales since the legalization took place. Tax proceeds were used to build schools and homeless shelters.
"It's incredible," Beverly Duran, the executive director of the Pueblo Hispanic Education Foundation told USA Today. "Every year we get a nice pool of students ... but we can always only award to a small percentage. This for us expands that to extraordinary lengths."
Colorado is known for its marijuana legalization and its mature marijuana industry. According to economists, the state can potentially hit the $1 billion mark on marijuana sales this year. This being said, the marijuana tax can potentially increase up to $135 million.
As Colorado continually profit from marijuana sales, taxes derived from the sales were already allotted to different sectors which are mostly focused on schools. It was mention that around $35 million will be focused on school upgrades and construction.
The scholarship was planned out last year. As the marijuana industry continue to make it big not just in Colorado, but in the United States, Sal Pace, the country commissioner responsible for pushing the scholarship into the ballot, referred to the marijuana industry as fund source.
"For years we've been floating the idea of a special funding source in Pueblo to help kids afford college," Pace told the Denver Post. "This seemed like a natural fit."
