Big Marijuana at last has acknowledged the threat it poses to Colorado's youths. Not in so many words, of course; in a more roundabout way.

Sure, the cynical industry continues to talk the talk about social responsibility and, more recently, racial equity whenever it is pushing its policy agenda at the State Capitol or at local city halls. Pot's well-oiled lobby smoothly reassures politicians with just the right rhetoric.

But just ask Colorado's legalized pot peddlers to reach into their deep pockets. Ask them to make up for some of the damage they have been doing to our children. Then, watch the charming prince turn back into a frog. Warts and all.

No policy priority— however socially responsible, however pressing — is going to come between Big Marijuana and its bulging bottom line.

Which explains why the gloves finally came off this week and the pot lobby bared its knuckles — incredibly, against an initiative on the statewide ballot this fall to help Colorado's neediest kids with their schooling. Proposition 119 asks voters to approve a small tax on pot sales to help struggling students make a significant stride.

Evidently, that's enough to get Big Marijuana to pump more cash into its propaganda mill in an attempt to crush the effort.

"You'll see the cannabis industry activating messaging, at the very least, inside of dispensaries and through our networks. You'll see handouts and fliers and things like that," an industry press agent told a Denver media outlet.

The proposal — billed as the Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress Program, or "LEAP" — promises to bolster public education in a big way in the wake of COVID. LEAP would provide funding for families to choose wide-ranging supplemental learning support for their children beyond the classroom. They could select from a smorgasbord of approved out-of-school learning providers. Options would include tutors in reading, math, science and writing; services for special-needs students, and career and technical education-training programs. Each household could receive up to $1,500 per child for such outside-class support.

Priority would be given to children who need it most — those from low-income households.

Colorado schoolkids need LEAP's help more than ever after last year's disastrous attempt at "remote learning" in response to the global pandemic. The release last month of troubling achievement test scores for K-12 students underscored that need. The test data confirmed what educators, policymakers and parents had suspected throughout the past academic year: Student achievement took a nosedive amid COVID.

In that light, the need for a windfall like LEAP is all the more urgent — and it has our enthusiastic support.

Who could object to such a smart solution — and why would Big Marijuana even care? Simply because a portion of the funding for LEAP will come from a modest, 5% sales tax on retail marijuana?

Well, it's about time pot paid up. Legalized recreational marijuana poses an ever greater threat to our kids. The array of easily concealed forms in which it can be purchased and the surging potency of its psychoactive ingredient are taking a toll.

A growing body of research shows the serious psychological harm and learning impairment that can arise from teen and pre-teen pot use. Lawmakers at the Capitol acknowledged as much — if belatedly — by passing legislation this year tightening some of the rules around recreational marijuana pot sales.

LEAP represents an effort to make legalized pot pay for at least some of the damage it does to society, especially to our young, on a daily basis. Using a small amount of marijuana proceeds to fund an effort that actually helps children would be a refreshing turnabout.

It certainly comes as no surprise that the state's pot purveyors couldn't care less about Colorado's kids. Yet, you wouldn't think the industry would be so tone deaf. It is taking on a proposal that has won broad-based, bipartisan support at the highest levels. Besides, Coloradans often have proved willing to tax tobacco, marijuana and other substances that are responsible for wide-ranging social ills. Honestly, we had expected Big Marijuana simply to grin and bear it on this one — because of its product's image issues and because of the popularity of the LEAP proposal.

And popular it is. Visit Prop 119's website (leap4co.com/endorsements/) for a who's who of its supporters. They include Democratic former Gov. Bill Ritter; Republican former Gov. Bill Owens; Democratic former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall; Democratic former Lt. Gov. and longtime Denver school board member Barbara O'Brien; leading Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the Legislature; the list is extensive. We urge you to join them.

Let's give Colorado kids a leg up in their schooling. The least the marijuana industry can do is offer a helping hand.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

Photo credit: rexmedlen at Pixabay