State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

In Colorado, a revolt against legalized marijuana

The Boston Globe: PUEBLO WEST, Colo. — Out here, in this unincorporated community of 30,000, there are miles of barren scrub-brush dotted with wild sunflowers. Low-slung houses sit on East Gun Powder Lane and North Cougar Drive. There’s a Walmart Supercenter, a Little Caesars, a Safeway with a small Starbucks tucked inside.

And, throughout the area, a revolt against retail marijuana sales smolders in a state awash in $1 billion of legal pot.

Four years ago, Coloradans voted to legalize marijuana for adults, and gave individual localities the opportunity to decide if they would allow retail marijuana shops.

But after local officials here welcomed the new industry, anti-marijuana activists in Pueblo County gathered enough signatures to force an unprecedented question on the November ballot: whether to terminate recreational marijuana sales and operations.

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