Montini: Colorado officials politely ask Arizona's anti-marijuana group to stop lying

Marijuana legalization is on the ballot in many different states and the anti-marijuana campaigns are resorting to spreading misinformation and lies to try and scare voters away. In Arizona, the marijuana opposition group Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy has been airing TV ads claiming that the tax revenue owed to Colorado public schools and health programs was not given. As a formal response to the misleading allegations, members of the Colorado House Appropriations Committee wrote a letter to the leaders of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy with a list of their ad's claims and the corrected information. In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, Colorado raised $220.8 million in tax revenue from legal marijuana. Out of over $200 million, $138.3 million was given to the Colorado Department of Education for public schools, while the amount used for regulating the marijuana program was only around $20 million. 

Of the approximately $220.8 million in total marijuana tax revenue distributions made in FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17, more than $138.3 million was distributed to the Colorado Department of Education to benefit Colorado schools. This far exceeds the amount that was distributed for the purposes of regulating marijuana, which included $15.8 to the Department of Revenue, $2.4 million to the Department of Agriculture, $2.8 million to the Department of Law, and less than $500,000 to the Governor’s Office of Marijuana Coordination.