This is why pot is being legalized in the first place. Did other people not realize that?

BC and the rest of Canada are looking at what CO and WA do with revenues, and so is Nevada

Hickenlooper has always been very reluctant to embrace legal pot. Whether it's some ingrained "drug R bad 'mkay" thing, a genuine disdain for marijuana, or a former microbrewer's instinctive reaction to competing recreational drugs, I can't say, but it's just his style to use drug tax money to promote antidrug material (now labeled "marijuana-mitigation spending).

Hick is a shoe-in for reelection this fall, but I hope he finds a job with the Clinton administration in 2016. Hick's overall a good guy, but between that and his former petroleum engineer's bias for fracking, I really would rather see someone else occupy our governor's mansion.

I wonder how much states will save in spending on their law enforcement, criminal justice, and correctional institutions, with pot legalized?

I disagree that revenue from pot sales should go towards basic state needs. They should go towards unnecessary state projects (things like building entertainment stadiums and whatnot).

Using pot sales to fund necessary projects creates a weird "forced" incentive for people to support greater pot sales when it might be against their interests.

For example, using pot sales to fund education... so now teachers will be encouraging people to buy more pot? That seems like a recipe for disaster.

Wait, they're saying JUNE 2015 now!?! I thought stores were supposed to open up this year? Or is this just that the revenue won't be available for the budget until it has been on sale for a year?

@5: Lottery money goes to fund schools, it is not as if teachers are always begging kids to go buy lotto tickets, or people who do not play the lottery are convinced to go buy tickets for the good of the tax revenues.

State money should be used for what it is needed most, regardless of how it is gained. I recognize that sometimes these concessions must be made to get laws passed (like requiring a certain percentage of gambling taxes to go to schools), but really they are harmful, immature, and unnecessary.

@5,

It should just go to the general fund like most other taxes.

@4 "Save"? You mean, redirect.

I wish we could move shit along already. At the current rate it doesn't even feel like anything will be open for business by the time the second anniversary of the legislation rolls around.

@10. Yeah. I really wanted to go to Seattle for my April vacation. Oh well, I'm told that Denver is nice that time of year.

And in Washington, the group of very serious incompetents & very serious idiots over at the WSLCB are busy making paper dolls and holding milk-thru-the-nose competitions.

Some money to social services and mental health would be nice. They have been getting cut left and right. Our mental health provider in Olympia, BHR, is in very dire straights (for various reasons, part of which are it's own fault but funding cuts haven't helped and keep in mind this is happening in front of the back drop of getting those crazy homeless people out of downtown)

Heh...I was out in Denver two weeks ago (and really up in Frisco to ski) and made my contribution to the state coffers. It was a surreal experience making a legal purchase. So happy for Colorado. The kid behind the counter took himself waaay to seriously but I chalk that up to the excitement of being legit.

I can only hope/pray that the folks at WSLCB are paying close attention to what's happening in CO. They've been moving slower than glaciers at getting permits issued and thus we're losing tax revenues (or, more aptly, not getting possible revenues). But, more importantly, they need to seriously re-think their demand estimates.

@11: Try Fort Collins instead (or in addition).

All that money came from selling stolen patients meds... It's sick. And now Hick is gonna spend 40 million for MORE reefer madness propaganda? Only idiots would buy in one of these stores when it's free amongst friends.....when their extortion tax goes towards law enforcement and reefer madness....

@17, you really need to put the joint down for a while. Stolen medical records? What medical records? It's legal here (and a cash-only transaction). There are no medical records involved.