Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Man
That's what we're hoping. I'm also curious about whether there'll be a notable culture change. My worry is that if you're an unemployed stoner you're going to come here and make a marijuana store your first stop and social services your second stop.
My initial theories are:
Positive outcomes:
Tax revenues
Prison savings
Negative outcomes
Increase in TANF
Influx of ne'er do wells and their related problems
More traffic crashes
Jerks who smoke it in public and annoy me since I don't like the smell
Note that I'm not saying that all marijuana users are ne'er do wells. I just think that if you are a ne'er do well and you smoke marijuana, Colorado will seem like a good place to come and live.
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Even as a big proponent to this whole thing, this stuff worries me. I'm all for pot tourists coming in and spending money in our state, but I don't want the quality of our workforce to suffer in the long run.
On the other hand, I also believe it's a remote possibility that there are a ton of productive pot smokers out there in the world that we've never heard about because of the obvious social stigma associated with it. Who knows - it's not completely out of the question that many perfectly productive people will be attracted to the state too.
Time will tell.