More than half of the average daily population in Pitkin County’s jail has a serious mental health issue, according to a 2022 report by Justice Planners. The high incidence of mental health issues among incarcerated.
Editor’s Note: This story is part two of a three-part series on mental health in the Roaring Fork Valley. Read part one here. Last year, Mental Health America a non-profit dedicated to the promotion.
Editor’s Note: This story is part one of a three-part series on mental health in the Roaring Fork Valley. In the summer of 2019, when Andrew Parrott was in crisis with bipolar disorder, a Pitkin.
Marijuana is displayed in glass canisters in glass cases around High Q in the Snowmass Village Mall. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
The three-county region of Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin encompasses 5,621 square miles, has a combined population of 133,000 residents, and is home to dozens of marijuana shops.
Those stores also combined for more than $66 million of Colorado’s record-breaking $2.2 billion in retail sales of marijuana in 2020, according to Colorado Department Revenue data.
Consumers of retail marijuana in Colorado are hit with a trio of taxes at the point of sale there’s a 2.9% state sales tax, a 15% marijuana retail sales tax (not applicable to medical pot), and a 15% excise tax. Some municipalities such as Snowmass Village, but not Aspen have additional taxes on cannabis. Snowmass voters passed a 5% sales tax on marijuana in November 2018.