Rural economies get high on legal cannabis

In Trinidad, Colorado, revenue from eight recreational cannabis shops is paving streets and helping refurbish downtown apartments. Across the state in De Beque, nearly a quarter of the town’s general fund comes from marijuana sales tax. In Log Lane Village, the town repaved two city blocks thanks to sales tax from two new pot shops — revenue that nearly doubled the city’s budget.  For rural Colorado communities like these — especially towns that were already struggling with the collapse of an economic engine, like coal or oil — the state’s three-year-old recreational marijuana industry has been a major boon. In many towns, marijuana sales have bolstered municipal tax bases, funding a variety of improvements. Store-owners, city councilmembers and mayors are cautiously optimistic that the influx of cash will continue, but say there’s no way to know how sustainable the growth will be. If surrounding states legalize marijuana, Colorado could lose its valuable status as an island of legalization in a sea of prohibition. Meanwhile, New Mexico medical cannabis suppliers look on, closely studying the Colorado experience in case recreational legalization makes it to the ballot.