mmediately following passage of Amendment 64, law enforcement savings are estimated to be $12 million annually, allowing law enforcement to redirect resources to more serious crime. By 2017, the tax revenue and cost savings of Amendment 64 could top $100 million each year, and the potential for economic stimulation through job creation, construction, and the regular expenditures of small businesses is significant. By placing marijuana in a regulated market and removing it from the underground, criminal market we will no longer be empowering gangs and cartels but rather growing Colorado's economy.
The hundreds of thousands of Coloradans who sometimes choose marijuana over alcohol will no longer have to fear being criminalized for making that choice. The 10,000-plus (disproportionately black) Coloradans who we could otherwise expect to be arrested for simple marijuana possession each year in the future will not have to face the devastating consequences of a marijuana citation on their record, which can include significantly restricted access to student loans, jobs, housing, and even their children in the case of a custody dispute.
And, as you will read below, regulating marijuana like alcohol will take it off the streets and make it more difficult for youth to access. You don't have to be a marijuana user to understand that marijuana prohibition is far more dangerous than marijuana itself.