Colorado town funds anti-bullying program with marijuana sales taxes

A Colorado school district says bullying incidents have decreased by nearly 25 percent in recent years – thanks to legal marijuana.

Lamar, Colo., funds an anti-bullying program for public school students in kindergarten through high school using money collected from sales taxes on marijuana.

The rural school district in Lamar, a town in southeastern Colorado with a population of about 7,000, spends over $100,000 annually on the anti-bullying curriculum. The money comes from marijuana sales taxes provided by the state.

The anti-bullying program is in its third year, according to the Lamar Ledger. CBS News reported bullying incidents have been cut by 23 percent since the program began.

{mosads}“I never thought I would see the day where marijuana money would fund programs in education,” Aron Jones, principal of Lakeview Elementary in Lamar, told CBS News.

Jones added that the curriculum “means the world” to students.

“If kids don’t feel safe, they’re not going to learn, they’re not going to achieve,” Jones said.

He said that he has not faced any backlash from parents or educators about using the “marijuana dollars” for the program.

“Professionally, this grant has really shown me that marijuana dollars can be directly used for student success, in this case bully prevention,” he said.

Last year, Colorado made over $266 million in revenue from marijuana taxes, licenses and fees, according to state records. In 2014, it was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. Colorado allows individual towns to decide whether to allow marijuana sales within city limits and Lamar does not allow marijuana shops to set up in town.