New
numbers have come out in the housing sector, indicating that in the next year,
the states of Washington and Colorado will have the highest number of home
sales in the country. Some other states are not too far behind. What makes
these states so successful? Analysts say it is the passage of laws these past few
years making the use of medicinal marijuana finally legal.
In
Washington and Colorado, especially, new laws make it legal to possess and use
small amounts of recreational marijuana. It is for this reason, folks from all
over the United States are flocking to those states to live in blissful freedom
from archaic laws blocking the use of marijuana.
Mobile
home lots and vacant land sales in Washington and Colorado alone are poised to
skyrocket as Boomers (folks in their 50s and 60s) pick up sticks and move to the
new promised land.
Marigold
Sunshine Parker has been running the family’s mobile home/trailer park in Hudson,
Colorado for going on three decades. She was one of the first people to light
up on January 1st without fear of being arrested.
“Finally,”
said Parker, 65, a self-proclaimed flower child from way back..
“I
had to become a grandma before I could smoke a doobie legally, but I made it,”
she said, her long arthritic fingers barely able to grip the joint she was
relishing.
Parker,
part American Indian from the Shoshone Tribe, stated simply, “It’s a good day
to toke.”
“All
these years I was barely scraping by, my ailments getting worse, doctor's bills
piling up," she said.
“Now
that pot is legal, I can grow my own and treat myself with fewer doctor visits.
On top of that, I’m selling property like crazy. When it rains, it pours,"
she chuckled, her blue eyes twinkling beneath an even bluer Colorado sky.
Parker
says that she now has a waiting list for homes in her 55+ adult mobile home
community with park-like setting due to the high (no pun intended) demand from
folks like her wanting to come live in the land of the free.
“And
the community get-togethers are so much more groovy, now,” she beamed.
“We’re
like kids again,” she said, putting down her joint and taking another bite of a
brownie her neighbor Aspen brought over that morning, and washing it down with
some home-made herbal tea.
According
to last year’s records, it seems to be that way all over the state. Not only
are trailer parks filling up to capacity, but sales of single-family homes,
condos, co-ops and even small recreational cabins in both Washington and
Colorado have almost tripled in price.
Major
home builders are taking notice as well, opening local offices and designing
homes that fit more in line with the "hippie" lifestyle many boomers are
wishing to re-live.
Tony
Landson, chief architect at New Horizon Homes out of Providence, Rhode Island,
says his company has just opened an office in Denver. Landson says he has been
asked to design several models, complete with built-in sun rooms and gardens
where marijuana can thrive year-round in Denver. He claims more companies are
doing the same.
As
word spreads of the economic uptick due to these new marijuana laws, more and
more states are taking notice, which makes the boomers in America very happy.
Hi
and Lois Baxter of Chico, California, have worked hard for years to get a
ballot measure passed in their state paving the way to becoming the next state
to legalize recreational pot. And while medicinal marijuana has been legal in
California for years, Hi says it is high time the good people of California
were able to smoke their pot out in the open and not just those who have
medical problems.
"Imagine,"
said Hi, who is unfortunately fit as a fiddle, "growing my own pot in my
own back yard," he said wistfully, while his wife, Lois, just rolled her
eyes and smiled.
"That's
all he's been talking about for the past three, four years now," said
Lois.
Dan
“Big Dan” Olsen, 63, of Yakima Bluffs Home Sales in Yakima, Washington, likened
this latest housing boom to the gold rush of 1869.
“Who
knew pot would be the one thing that brought so many Americans back out West to
help re-build this part of the nation?
Dan
then pumped his fist into the air signaling solidarity and yelled “Rock on
dudes,” before excusing himself to go about tending to his indoor herb garden.
In
a related story, Florida was just named the most unfriendly place to relocate
by AARPPG (American Association of Retired Persons and Pot Growers) due to its
continuing strict anti-marijuana laws. Real estate prices there are expected to
remain flat until enough signatures are obtained and a measure is put on the
ballot making medicinal marijuana legal in that state.
AARPPG warns that Florida could lose its
status as the best place to retire if the measure isn't placed on the ballot.
So far, supporters of the law say they have the required number of signatures
on a petition to accomplish this, but fear the powers that be in Tallahassee
will find some reason to strike the petition down.
However,
with the latest news about the housing sector being positively influenced by
the passage of marijuana laws in the other states, Florida is looking more and
more like another proving ground for making marijuana legal.
Bumper
stickers are popping up all over Florida urging Governor Rick Scott and his
supervisor of elections to allow the bill on the ballot by stating "Don't
Bogart that Bill, My Friend--Pass it!"
