Colorado County Funds College Scholarship With Marijuana Money

This week Pueblo County, Colorado officials created the “world’s first cannabis-funded scholarship" which is made up of $425,000 directly from the state's cannabis excise tax revenue. $1,000 of aid will be available to all qualifying graduating students with more available for those in need. This scholarship fund is expected to grow dramatically over the next several years as the tax rate on marijuana is set to grow 1 percent each year until it reaches 5%. The current tax rate is 2%. County commisioners are happy to see this money being used to educate youth in need rather than be funneled through black market marijuana.

The scholarship fund is expected to grow in the next several years, as both marijuana cultivation and the taxation rate increase.

“It will grow annually because the excise tax increases annually,” Pace told The Huffington Post. “We also expect many new farms to come online this year. Only roughly half of the licensed farms were operational in 2016.”

“It is so critically important to make college affordable for our youth if we want to provide long-term economic opportunity to our community,” she said. “Too many kids can’t afford to go to college, with this program we are taking cannabis-tax revenue and using it to provide for a brighter future in Pueblo.”