The first ten months of 2016 marked a historic moment for the legalized cannabis industry as Colorado Cannabis shops reached a milestone of a $1 billion in regulated, legal cannabis sales.
New October data from the Colorado Department of Revenue shows that recreational and medical cannabis shops in Colorado have sold over $1.1 billion worth of marijuana products so far this year.
This total eclipses last year’s sales figures which fell just shy of the billion dollar mark at $996 million.
The state of Colorado was the first American state to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012 with the passing of the Colorado Amendment 64.
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The state had previously decriminalized the drug in 1975 and allowed medical use of cannabis upon prescription in the year 2000.
Marijuana retailers in the state reported record sales in the month of September 2016 when marijuana sales hit an all-time high in Colorado.
$82.8 million worth of marijuana was peddled at retailers in the month of October along with $35 million more in medical sales.
These figures marked a 46% cumulative year upon year increase for October.
The state government has collected over $151 million in taxes from legal Marijuana sales. Three different taxes are imposed on recreational marijuana in the state of Colorado – the standard 2.9 percent sales tax, a special 10 percent sales tax, and a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale transfers of which the first $40 million is earmarked for school construction projects.
ArcView Group, a research firm which specializes in the Cannabis industry, estimates that the legal marijuana industry in the United States could reach a figure of $22 Billion in total annual sales by the year 2020.
It is important to note, however, that the drug remains illegal on a federal level although it has been voted into legalization by several states. It remains to be seen how President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration will deal with the issue of marijuana legalization.
Although Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, three more states of Alaska, Oregon and Washington have also launched legalization programs of their own.
Last month, voters in California, Maine, Nevada and Massachusetts have all voted in favor of legalized recreational pot. Medical Marijuana is also legal in 28 states.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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Philadelphia Braces For Super Bowl Levels Of Mobile Usage When Pope Francis Comes To Town
Preparations are underway as civic and religious leaders in New York, Washington DC, and Philadelphia all prepare for the arrival of Pope Francis next week.
This visit will be Pope Francis’ first ever trip to the United States. The New York Times quoted Cardinal Timothy Dolan talking about Francis’ feelings about the trip.
“He’s a little nervous about coming,” Dolan told the Times. “Not that he lacks any confidence in the reception of friendship that he knows he’ll get, but he readily admits he has never been to the United States.”
Social media platforms and wireless carriers anticipate that web activity related to the Pope’s three day visit will generate roughly the same web traffic as the super bowl.
A single closing mass in Philadelphia is expected to draw more than one million attendants, according to the Associated Press.
Wireless carriers have brought in portable cell towers in an attempt to increase capacity for the social media frenzy surrounding the Pope’s visit. Bishops in all three cities have been receiving a crash course in social media and live streaming events. Comcast, the cable giant headquartered out of Philadelphia, has even offered free Wi-Fi to try and ease the data strain expected to surround Pope Francis’ visit.
Pope Francis will spend roughly five days in the United States. In this time the Pope will meet with President Obama and address members of the Congress, following which he will meet with many of the poor and homeless clients of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington.
The Pope will also make an address before the United Nations General Assembly. During the trip Francis is expected to focus on the rights and the needs of the poor, as well as the responsibilities of the United States as a global super power.
The United States will be the fifteenth country that Pope Francis has visited since being named the Supreme Pontiff.
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Stress In The Information Age Is Grinding Up The Millennial Generation
The internet and social media have revolutionized the way in which we communicate, conduct business, and learn.
For students especially, such a rapidly changing environment has had an equally pronounced effect on student life and culture.
Opportunities are endless, and pursuing those unlimited opportunities seems to be pushed harder and harder with each new wave of prospective students.
As a recent graduate friend of mine reflected, by sophomore year, incoming freshmen will be overseeing at least five on campus organizations, conducting graduate level research, working two jobs, applying for 30+ internships, and getting published all at the same time.
While a bit of an exaggeration, it isn’t too far from the norm, and reflects a growing trend among college students leading increasingly fast paced lives.
None of this would be possible without the internet, but there may be a dark side.
Several studies have come out recently highlighting an increase in levels of stress and anxiety among both college level and high school students.
Academic institutions are increasingly having to expand care for mental health as the demand continues to exceed capacity across the nation.
According to the American Psychological Association, the percentage of students seeking counseling has skyrocketed from 37% in 2007, to around 50% by 2014.
Anxiety ranks as the most common reason students seek help.
As a rather involved university student myself, I’ve grown accustomed to the occasional fits of anxiety and have seen it become more and more commonplace among friends and peers.
The problem may be that technology has opened up so many doors that students are having trouble deciding which ones to close.
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This goes back to the increased level of involvement of students mentioned earlier.
We as humans are naturally risk averse, and for far too many, not pursuing an opportunity is seen as a risk.
At the same time, social media exposes us to what everyone else is doing, causing us to judge our actions more harshly against a larger pool.
Instead of applying for five colleges for example, some high school grads report applying to a minimum of 15 as the norm.
All too often we find ourselves pursuing opportunities either because we saw that someone else had success and wonder if we can mimic it, or because we don’t know what we want to do so we apply for everything.
If we don’t, we feel we may miss out.
Thus, students end up increasingly overburdened with work they may not even enjoy, and more and more confused about their futures.
Among those students who don’t favor such a fast paced life, they too are finding themselves questioning their decisions and lifestyles against their other more involved peers, ignoring what may be best for themselves.
At the end of the day, that is where all this anxiety and stress is coming from.
It is a product of doing something that is not in line with one’s personal ethos, and the increased uncertainty of an environment dominated by technology.
By that I mean, the internet has no set focus.
It bounces around from one thing to the next with no attention span whatsoever.
If we are to give any credit to the idea that humans mimic their environment, the internet is making it increasingly apparent that we do.
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We can see this on every level, from the CDC’s tracking of increased rates of ADHD in kids, to college students who report less and less meaning in their relationships.
The way many millennials behave and interact with each other draws stark parallels to the way we consume information.
Facebook, for example, is overloaded with short flashy videoclips that bounce around form one topic to another.
These videos are quickly becoming the average millennial’s go to for news and updates, and while they may look nice on the surface, in actuality, they convey very little.
This makes the problem of stress even worse because normally our best counters to those feelings are our personal relationships, friends and family that keep us grounded.
Instead, millennials are turning to their phones and computers for their security, but very little of it provides any genuine long term comfort.
The internet has changed the environment at such a sharp pace it may be that the mind has not had enough time to adapt.
The best medicine may simply be to slow down.
As someone who once went into a cardiologist’s office mistaking anxiety for heart problems, if there’s any advice I can offer my fellow peers who feel overwhelmed by the intensity of the world around them, it would be to learn how to say no instead of maybe.
Remind yourself that you don’t have to constantly be in motion.
That sometimes a moment of solitude on the shores of a lake offers more value than a night out. And to do what you want to do, not what you feel pressured into.
Because at the end of the day, you will never do as good a job at something you don’t like as opposed to someone who enjoys it.
College is a difficult time for everyone, but the most important lessons you learn won’t come in the form of your classes.
You’ll forget most of that stuff anyway, and most the experience you’ll need will come from work or post-grad.
Instead, the most important lessons that college teaches you are how to handle people, how to handle time, and most importantly, how to handle yourself.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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