Last night Holly and I celebrated our fourth anniversary by going to see the Colorado Symphony at Red Rocks, an incredible outdoor music venue outside of Denver. It was a great night and the icing on the cake was that tickets were only $20!
How could this be possible, to see the symphony perform at a venue where tickets are often three times what we paid?
:-)
The event was sponsored by marijuana industry companies.
My hat's off to the state of Colorado for passing Amendment 64, which made all this possible. Instead of arresting people for possessing a plant, we pumped $12 million in tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales into the state's coffers in the first half of 2014.
Even more than that, a thousand people and many families went to see the symphony last night, people who might not have been able or willing to afford it otherwise. A good, wholesome time was had by many, and it was made possible by money contributed by the marijuana companies.
Of course, there's nothing especially noble about sponsoring an event as a way of promoting one's own business, but it's nice that we're finally allowing the marijuana industry a chance to become legitimate, pay taxes, and be a part of the community and above-ground market.
It's win-win.
The marijuana industry gets to be a legitimate part of society and business, and we get their innovative ideas, like making a symphony performance available at a price that many can afford.
There are plenty of things that are not right in this world, but I take some solace in the turning tide marking the end of marijuana prohibition. I take solace in events like the one I went to last night.
It is one of the many positive side-effects of ending marijuana prohibition.
Thank you, reason, for finding your way into Colorado's approach to regulating marijuana. It made for a lovely anniversary!
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