Index
Nederland Journal
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/us/politics/08pot.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22
Where Marijuana Is a Point of Pride
By KIRK JOHNSON ----- Published: November 7, 2010
NEDERLAND, Colo.
Millions of Americans expressed their feelings about marijuana last week. In Colorado,
24 communities voted to ban or restrict shops selling legal medical marijuana. In California, voters
wrestled with the question of legalization for recreational use — with issues of health, crime and
taxes all coming into play — then voted no.
But here in Nederland, it was just another beautiful day high in the mountains.
Marijuana has been mainstream in this outpost of the counterculture, 8,000 feet in the Rockies and an hour
northwest of Denver, since the days of Bob Marley’s cigar-size “spliffs” and the jokes of Cheech and Chong.
And to judge by the numbers, things have not changed all that much.
An explosion of medical marijuana sales over the last year in Colorado as well as the District of Columbia
and the 13 other states where medical use is allowed has certainly brought a new element into the mix.
Dispensaries like Grateful Meds, one of seven medical marijuana providers in Nederland, population 1,400,
now have legal compliance lawyers on retainer and sales tax receipts in the cash drawer.
But marijuana is still marijuana, and Nederland’s perch overlooking what John Denver immortalized as
“the Colorado Rocky Mountain high” has not budged.
enzovoort ............
.................
In June alone, while many communities around the nation were still sputtering through economic doldrums,
sales taxes collected in Nederland came in a robust 54 percent above those of June 2009. Without the tax
collected on marijuana, the increase would have been 22 percent
.................
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/us/politics/08pot.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22
Where Marijuana Is a Point of Pride
By KIRK JOHNSON ----- Published: November 7, 2010
NEDERLAND, Colo.
Millions of Americans expressed their feelings about marijuana last week. In Colorado,
24 communities voted to ban or restrict shops selling legal medical marijuana. In California, voters
wrestled with the question of legalization for recreational use — with issues of health, crime and
taxes all coming into play — then voted no.
But here in Nederland, it was just another beautiful day high in the mountains.
Marijuana has been mainstream in this outpost of the counterculture, 8,000 feet in the Rockies and an hour
northwest of Denver, since the days of Bob Marley’s cigar-size “spliffs” and the jokes of Cheech and Chong.
And to judge by the numbers, things have not changed all that much.
An explosion of medical marijuana sales over the last year in Colorado as well as the District of Columbia
and the 13 other states where medical use is allowed has certainly brought a new element into the mix.
Dispensaries like Grateful Meds, one of seven medical marijuana providers in Nederland, population 1,400,
now have legal compliance lawyers on retainer and sales tax receipts in the cash drawer.
But marijuana is still marijuana, and Nederland’s perch overlooking what John Denver immortalized as
“the Colorado Rocky Mountain high” has not budged.
enzovoort ............
.................
In June alone, while many communities around the nation were still sputtering through economic doldrums,
sales taxes collected in Nederland came in a robust 54 percent above those of June 2009. Without the tax
collected on marijuana, the increase would have been 22 percent
.................
