Pubdate: Mon, 25 May 2015
Source: Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Pueblo Chieftain
Contact:  http://www.chieftain.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1613
Author: Jimmy Newmoon Roybal

PLANT THE SEEDS OF RESEARCH

PEDCO's request not to use the half-cent sales tax for marijuana 
businesses is nearly the most anti-business, anti-development stance 
that they can take.

Marijuana businesses are not just about retail outlets for 
recreational use. The long-term money is in marijuana research and 
the establishment of a nascent and niche pharmaceutical industry.

Marijuana consumerism has a limited growth horizon, because as other 
states legalize our competitive advantage is lost. However, our 
competitive advantage to create a research-based pharmaceutical 
business around marijuana is slipping away every second.

The half-cent sales tax might be one of the only ways that public 
financing could be provided for a research-based marijuana industry. 
This could be a further competitive advantage for Pueblo to attract 
solid research businesses here.

Research is extremely capital-intensive and it can be very hard to 
replace or move, so there is a much greater chance that a research 
outfit would stay in Pueblo if we provide public finances to it 
through the half-cent sales tax.

Marijuana businesses actually are contributing to economic 
development in Pueblo County. The use of the half-cent sales tax to 
provide public finance to marijuana research would be a step in the 
correct direction.

As citizens, we must look toward our future and tell our leaders that 
we do not want them touching the half-cent sales tax money unless it 
can also be used to support research-based marijuana businesses.

With the legalization of marijuana, we the electorate, have handed 
our civic and economic leaders one of the greatest competitive 
economic advantages that ever has existed, and we expect them to use 
this advantage to create wealth in our community.

Jimmy Newmoon Roybal

Pueblo
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom