Other states look to Colorado as the pot pioneer. If properly informed, they will run from proposals to replicate this mess. They will discard the misrepresentations of politicians who claim victory for going where no state had gone before.

“Congress should follow Colorado’s lead and bring our nation’s marijuana laws into the 21st century,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., in a May 2 statement about his support for nationwide legalization.

“Colorado set the standard for legalizing cannabis. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, and now Congress must follow suit by removing cannabis from Schedule I classification,” says Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., on his Senate website.

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Hickenlooper supported his “overwhelmingly positive” assessment by writing, “The cannabis industry is spurring economic growth for Colorado and other states that have legal marijuana.”

An article in Politico published Sunday begs to differ.

“Colorado’s weed market is coming down hard and making other states nervous,” says the headline.

They should be nervous, for insidious reasons far worse than failed business plans. They include:

• A crime-rate surge from 2012 to 2022, up 21.6%, as eight neighboring states saw crime rates plateau or decrease.

• Traffic fatalities increased 57% over the past decade.

• A decadelong increase in marijuana-related hospitalizations, emergency room visits, poison control calls and fatal crashes involving drivers impaired by THC, based on data from the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.

• Suicides increased by 23% since legalization.

• Suicides among Colorado adolescents ages 15-19 have nearly doubled since legalization.

One cannot blame all this squarely on marijuana, but the correlation should raise red flags. And that’s only what statistics can measure.

No one can tally the number of children who choose pot over athletics or other extracurricular activities. We cannot count the lost opportunities resulting from people choosing a drug for recreation, as opposed to Colorado’s countless options for constructive activities.

Politico focused on the industry, which is down in the dumps. It tells of 3D Cannabis, which gained national attention as the first store in the United States to make a legal recreational marijuana sale.

“The windows and doors on the side of the building have been boarded up,” the article explains. “Plastic bags, discarded coffee cups and other trash collect in the corners of the abandoned parking lot.”

A makeshift sign reads, “temporarily closed.”

“The dismal state of the historic site is a fitting symbol of the plight of Colorado’s cannabis market,” Politico says.

“What once was a success story has now left a trail of failed businesses and cash-strapped entrepreneurs in its wake.”

A market worth $2.2 billion four years ago fell last year to $1.5 billion. Last year’s tax revenues were 30% lower than in 2021.

“Colorado’s trailblazing cannabis market is now a cautionary tale,” Politico concludes.

In just the past year, the number of Colorado cannabis business licenses dropped 16% along with the number of cannabis jobs. Maggie’s Farm, a pillar of the southern Colorado pot sector, this year shut down five of eight dispensaries. Another major pot chain, Native Roots in Denver, cut production in half last year.

Colorado’s pot bonanza will go down as a danger to public health, and a pig in a poke for investors and entrepreneurs.

Given the layoffs, bankruptcies and broken hearts, the business side works like the drug itself. It provides a counterfeit high until the buzz wears off and reality beckons.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board