As the semester winds down to a close, no doubt some of you are looking forward to graduating from college in a few weeks. This is the next phase of your life! You’re finally a “real adult”. Unfortunately, for many of us being a “real adult” also means being hounded by debt collectors for the rest of your life because you can’t afford to pay back your student loans. One county in Colorado wants to change that by offering the world's first "cannabis scholarship" using revenue from cannabis sales taxes.
See, opponents of cannabis legalization often, no, always argue that cannabis should not be legalized because it does no good for the community. This argument has been made by both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Representative Tom Marino (R-PA) Trump’s pick for drug czar. Marino in particular claims that legalization has “caused a lot of problems in those places.” He could not be further from the truth. States where cannabis is legal have seen all kinds of benefits from legalization, not the least of which is tax revenue, because cannabis is taxed up to the moon.
Taxes from cannabis sales have been used to do a great deal of positive things. For example, in Colorado most of the tax money from cannabis goes into improving public schools. Now, some of it will be going toward higher education (no, not that type). The cannabis scholarship will no doubt have a big impact on Pueblo County. Perhaps the rest of Colorado will begin offering cannabis scholarships, followed by Washington, Oregon, and California?
One of the biggest barriers to getting an education in the US, is the cost of education. The trillion dollar bubble caused by student loan debt is also getting dangerously close to popping. This will no doubt lead to another 2008 style recession in the US. What if it turns out that the cannabis industry is the only thing that can bail us out this time? The cannabis industry is quickly becoming the most profitable in America, and it’s only expected to grow.
So, yes, why couldn't a cannabis scholarship to alleviate some of the crushing debt caused by student loans? It would help students in need, and probably be very beneficial to the nation economically. I'm not saying that it would be a cure all, but, anything is better than the system we currently have.
Source: CBS News
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