The Relationship of the Legalization of Marijuana Compared to Other Factors in Boulder County
For decades now, Colorado, specifically Boulder, have been well known for their citizens’ consumption of marijuana. One of the more notable events that gave Boulder that reputation is the large gathering of marijuana users on 04/20. Every University of Colorado student has seen the pictures of the cloud of smoke over Norlin Quad on April 20th that gave Boulder its reputation. Since then, Boulder has continued to attract frequent marijuana users, especially after it became legalized in 2014. In 2016, the Denver Post reported that Boulder County had the most dispensaries out of any of the counties in Colorado. Due to this lasting reputation and the controversial elements of legalized marijuana, I decided to examine the sales of marijuana with three other variables: estimated population, per capita personal income, and number of crimes. In this paper, I will argue that when retail sales of marijuana increase, the per capita personal income and estimated population increase because there are more job opportunities and more tax money to allocate to public resources like education. However, I will argue that the retail sales of marijuana are not directly causing the number of crimes to increase.
In January of 2014, Colorado became the first state in the United States to legalize marijuana. Since then, Colorado has been known for its use of legalized marijuana. Over the last seven years, the sale of marijuana has increased significantly. In 2014, the Colorado Department of Revenue reported around $28,600,000 in retail sales of marijuana in Boulder County. In 2021, the department reported around $130,500,000 in retail sales of marijuana in Boulder County. This is an average increase of $14,557,100 a year. That is a large increase over seven years that highlights how successful the legalization of marijuana has been for the marijuana industry and the state as a whole. Additionally, the amount of retail sales per person in Boulder county was $93.37 per citizen in 2014. This increased consistently over time to $400.18 per citizen in 2021. The graph above highlights the increase in per capita retail sales of marijuana overtime. This graph shows the large and consisten increase that the marijuana industry experienced between 2014 and 2021. Overall, the retail sales of marijuana have increased significantly in the seven years since its legalization in 2014.
In addition to the large increase in retail sales of marijuana, Boulder County has had a consistent increase in population and per capita personal income. In 2014, the population of Boulder County was 306,291 people. In 2021, the population of Boulder County was 326,123 people. This shows the general increase in population in Boulder over time. This is a general increase of 2,833 people each year; however, Boulder reached its peak in population in 2019 and has been decreasing since then. Though this decrease has occurred over the last few years, the population in Boulder has mostly been increasing over time. The graph above points out the general increase in population between 2014 and 2021, as well as the population decrease in 2020. In addition to an increase in population, the per capita personal income in Boulder has increased over the last seven years. In 2014, the per capita personal income in Boulder County was $60,411 per person. This continually increased over the seven years. In 2021, there was a per capita personal income of $89,593 per person. This is an increase of $29,152 per capita over the last seven years. The second graph above emphasizes the large increase in per capita personal income in Boulder County between 2014 and 2021. Overall, we can see an increase in population and per capita income since 2014.
Between 2021 and 2014, there was an increase in retail marijuana sales, population, and per capita personal income. I attempted to determine the relationship between marijuana sales, population, and per capita personal income by looking at the trends of each of the variables and the correlation between the items. The graph above shows the correlation between the retail sales of marijuana, per capita personal income, and estimated population. A strong correlation is determined to be greater than 0.2. This graph shows that the three variables have a very strong positive correlation with each other. There is a 0.9 correlation between retail sales of marijuana and the estimated population. Additionally, there is a 0.87 correlation between per capita personal income and estimated population. Lastly, there is a 0.97 correlation between per capita personal income and retail sales of marijuana. This means that retail sales of marijuana and per capita personal income increase at almost the exact same rate. This large correlation between the two variables highlights the strong positive relationship. When examining the relationships between these three variables, we can conclude that there is a strong positive correlation between retail sales of marijuana, estimated population, and per capita personal income; however, what is the reason behind these strong relationships?
Through research on marijuana sales in Boulder related to population growth and the economy, I found that there is a strong positive correlation between these three variables due to the economic effects of legalized marijuana. With over $130 million dollars in retail sales of marijuana a year in Boulder county, the legalization of marijuana has greatly affected the economy in Boulder. The first reason marijuana has helped the economy is that it has brought more jobs to the city. This helps the economy because when more jobs are available, the unemployment rate goes down. Lower unemployment rates lead to a higher personal income per person because more people are getting income from the jobs that they are working. This shows a causal relationship between retail sales of marijuana and per capita personal income because more sales leads to more jobs which leads to a higher per capita income. The second reason retail sales of marijuana java positively helped the economy is taxes. The sale of marijuana is highly taxed by the government. According to the Denver Post, in two and a half years, Boulder had already received 8.4 million dollars in tax revenue from the legal sale of marijuana. This money is used to help the Boulder community as a whole by putting it into public industries like education. This money has been used to make the community and the schools a better place which is a positive effect of the marijuana industry. Better communities and more jobs lead to an increase in population because people generally want to live in an area that has job opportunities and has community benefits. These two factors offer an explanation for how retail sales of marijuana and estimated population are related. As the retail sales of marijuana go up, there are more job opportunities and money in places like schools which create a larger population. Overall, the positive effects of sales of marijuana on the economy have created a casual relationship between retail sales of marijuana, per capita personal income, and estimated population.
In order to analyze the effects of marijuana sales on Boulder, I looked at a fourth factor, number of crimes, in relation to the three previous variables. There is a strong positive correlation of 0.92 between retail sales of marijuana and the number of crimes in Boulder. The graph below highlights this positive relationship. The graph shows that as the retail sales of marijuana in Boulder County increase, the number of crimes increase. Crime was a concern of many people who opposed the legalization of marijuana so, I did some research into how crime is related to the sale of marijuana. I found both the increase of retail sales of marijuana and ther increase in the number of crimes happen when there is an increase in the population as a whole. There is a 0.84 correlation between estimated population and number of crimes. The second graph below shows that when the population increases, the number of crimes increase. This shows a strong positive relationship between the population of a county and the number of crimes. Crime has been known to be larger in cities with higher populations so, we can conclude that the correlation between retail sales of marijuana and the number of crimes in the city are a factor of population growth. These numbers show that even though there is a correlation between crime and retail sales of marijuana, there is not a direct causation between the two variables.
Through this article, I have found that between 2014 and 2021, Boulder County experienced a large increase in four factors: estimated population, number of crimes, per capita personal income and retail sales of marijuana. I identified that there is a strong positive correlation and causal relationship between retail sales of marijuana, and estimated population and per capita personal income. Additionally, I found that an increase in the population causes more retail sales of marijuana and a number of crimes. These results highlight the benefits of legalized marijuana industries in our cities. Legalizaed marijuana has helped bring more people to Colorado, provided more job opportunities, and put more money back into the community. These positive impacts, that I have argued are related to the retail sales of marijuana, have helped Boulder grow as a city. I argue that a strong positive correlation between retail sales of marijuana, estimated population and per capita personal income are arguments to the benefits of legalized marijuana.
