Pot Not Selling... but, Girl Scout Cookies are...

 In Colorado, not as many people are buying recreational pot as predicted.  And that means the high tax revenues state lawmakers thought would be rolling in are not.

With seemingly everyone wanting a cut of Colorado’s pot taxes, for the first time, the joint budget committee took up the debate over how to dole the dollars out. And new numbers show sales aren’t quite the what the state expected.

Not only are sales lower than projected, so too are the number of businesses approved to sell it.

The state expected to approve one-hundred-ten businesses the first month.

Only about half that number, 59, were approved as of February 1.

“They missed the mark and so the volatility unpredictability of this revenue stream is why I think responsible prudent thing to do is spend these moneys in rears looking at last year’s actual collection,” Pat Steadman, (D) Co. General Assembly said.

Meaning they won’t spend money they don’t have yet, except this year.

The budget committee will create a mini-budget for the tax dollars collected in the first six months – an estimated 20-million dollars.

Far below the 54-million the governor budgeted for.

Like the governor, the committee plans to put much of the money toward prevention programs to protect kids.

But, the legislature will have the final say.

“If there’s going to be amendments, feeding frenzies, shopping sprees, and lots of lobbying that goes on around this so be it,” Steadman said.

However, Danielle Lei, an enterprising Girl Scout, sold more than 100 boxes of cookies in just two hours outside of a San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary last week. 

But the Girl Scouts of Colorado leadership is killing the buzz for local members, saying that Colorado scouts cannot likewise sell cookies in front of pot shops, despite recreational marijuana being legal in the state.

"Our position is really pretty simple," Rachelle Trujillo, chief marketing officer for the Girl Scouts of Colorado, told The Huffington Post. 

"For years in our council, we've said it's not appropriate for Girl Scouts to sell cookies outside of adult-oriented businesses, and marijuana dispensaries fall right in line with this policy. 

There's a place for everything, and just like a liquor store or a gun show, a marijuana dispensary isn't a place for young girls to be selling cookies. 

There are plenty of other options for customers of adult businesses to purchase cookies at other locations."