Colorado Earmarks Pot Tax Revenue to Fight Bullying

Colorado has done some very interesting things with the tax revenue it collects on legal pot sales, which according to the taxman hit nearly $117 million in June of this year.

In addition to building schools, educational programs and various other services like school drop-out prevention and mentoring projects, the Colorado Education Department (CDE) will receive a $2 million grant to prevent bullying in schools, according to Denver 7.

Thanks to the passage of Proposition BB, which allows the state to retain $66 million of pot tax revenue for school construction and state programs, the CDE can put this new bullying prevention program into place.

Dr. Adam Collins, prevention and education grant coordinator for the CDE, told Denver 7 that Colorado is the only state “providing such significant funds to prevent bullying in schools.”

The grant allows up to $40,000 per school year to sponsor bullying prevention programs in the 50 Colorado schools registered to participate.

Bullying is an issue that affects children in all schools across the United States. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, one out of every four students (22 percent) report being bullied during the school year and two-thirds of them never report it.

“I think it’s a huge problem,” said Colorado’s East High senior Isabel Dias-Bertch said. “It’s something that haunts you the rest of your life.”

Fortune Magazine reports that Colorado’s pot industry is worth at least a billion dollars.

Don’t you wish your state could do that? If you live in one of the nine states that will be voting for medical or legal weed this November, now’s your chance.