What Colorado Has Learned Since Legalizing Marijuana
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has some advice for California after recreational marijuana became legal in the Golden State.
He told Cheddar that his state faced issues with packaging and making sure children did not have access to marijuana.
“The things we had challenges with were the edibles. We needed to create legislation to make sure that they were put in tamper-proof containers, just like the medicine you might get at the pharmacy,” he said. “We had kids into it, and we were worried about child, teenage consumption going up, which really hasn’t happened to any significant degree.”
What has happened, though, is an influx of tax revenue. Since going live four years ago, Colorado has earned more than half a billion dollars from these businesses. Hickenlooper says the state allocated those funds towards things such as education and focuses on advertising against weed consumption among teens.
“While your brain is rapidly growing, this high THC marijuana is a bad idea,” he said. “I think California is going to try to do it, to a large extent, the same.”
California is the largest market for cannabis in North America and is expected to rake in more than a billion dollars in tax revenue from legal pot in the next year alone.
For the full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/colorado-gov-john-hickenlooper-offers-his-advice-to-california).
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