Colorado officials on Friday announced another round of auctions for ceremonial, marijuana-themed license plates to raise money to support programs for people with disabilities.
People are able to bid on 22 different license plates with cannabis terms—like “WEED,” “420,” “BONGWTR,” “HASH” and “THC”—until April 20 and 4:20pm MT, with the first-to-legalize state strongly leaning into the marijuana holiday.
For over a decade, Colorado has been a leader in the cannabis space, bringing bold, and creative businesses to the state. This effort allows us to celebrate Colorado’s mile-high reputation and fund critical programs in our disability community.https://t.co/rBL3wGEaAV pic.twitter.com/xN9doq4GBj
— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) April 2, 2022
“For over a decade, Colorado has been a leader in the cannabis space, bringing bold, innovative and creative businesses to the state,” Gov. Jared Polis (D) said in a press release. “This effort allows us to celebrate Colorado’s mile-high reputation and fund critical projects and programs in our disability community.”
The state generated more than $45,000 from last year’s inaugural marijuana license plate auction for the Colorado Disability Funding Committee (CDFC).
Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera (D) said the new initiative is a “fantastic opportunity to provide grant funding to not-for-profit and for-profit organizations that serve people with disabilities.”
As an example, a representative of Family Voices CO, which received a grant from the 2021 auction, said that it gave the organization the opportunity to launch a pilot program to help 12 children experiencing deaf-blindness.
Other plates in the new auction include ones reading, “BLUNT,” “DABBING,” “TERPENE,” “TOKER,” “VISINE” and “NORML.”
One of the top sellers from last year’s auction was the “TEGRIDY” plate, a nod to the fictional South Park marijuana farm. Polis presented the creators of South Park with the souvenir license plates late last year, and he also said one of the show’s most popular stoner characters would make a good mascot for the state.
The press release from the governor’s office emphasizes that “it is never a good idea to mix driving and cannabis.”
“Cannabis impairs critical abilities needed to drive safely, which can result in a crash,” it says. “A DUI can cost more than $13,500 and include jail time, loss of license and more.”
People who don’t live in Colorado can also bid. If they win, they will be sent a novelty plate without the security features that come on a normal plate.
Despite being one of the first states to legalize for adult use, Colorado’s cannabis program is continually evolving.
Colorado broke another marijuana sales record in 2021, with state officials reporting over $2.22 billion in cannabis purchases last year. Marijuana sales exceeded $151 million in the state in January 2022 alone, officials reported.
Nearly $500 million of cannabis tax revenue in Colorado has supported the state’s public school system. The state brought in a record $423 million in marijuana tax dollars last year.
Meanwhile, Colorado officials announced in January that the state has achieved a “wildly important goal” of increasing diversity in the legal marijuana industry—but the data shows there’s still a way to go before cannabis business ownership is on par with the state’s population demographics.
The governor has also been routinely providing relief to thousands of people with prior marijuana convictions through the pardon process.
Advocates were disappointed last month, however, when a Colorado House committee defeated a bill that was originally meant to provide protections for workers who use marijuana off the job and allow medical cannabis patients to use their medicine at work—even after significantly scaling the legislation back to remove those protections altogether.
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