Want to Get Pulled Over? Then Bid on One of These New License Plates

Sweet deal, isn't it?

April 6, 2022

BONGWATR is just one of 23 police magnets up for auction through April 20. Colorado Disability Funding Committee

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For a few thousand dollars, you can increase the likelihood of getting pulled over by police.

Sweet deal, isn't it?

On Friday, April 1, Governor Jared Polis's office announced that 23 marijuana-themed Colorado license plates with phrases like "420," "BONGWTR," "BLUNT," "TOKER" and "WEED" were up for auction. The news wasn't an April Fool's joke, although it would've been a lot better than the one he did throw out there about cliff-diving at Casa Bonita.

And the money is going to a good cause. This was the second year in a row that the Colorado Disability Funding Committee and the state Department of Transportation (CDOT) have partnered to sell vanity license plates with a marijuana spin, with the money going toward disabled causes across the state. By the end of the 2021 pot-plate auction, 1,050 bids had been collected for a combined $45,410. A handful of this year's options, including "CBD," "420," HASH," "MRY JANE" and "WEED," have already crossed the four-digit mark, with starting bids at $420.

Not all of the options are tired only to marijuana. If you don't impress the ladies in a gray pair of sweatpants but can still pitch a tent, putting the license plate "GROWER" on your lifted pickup truck could help spread the word. Ditto for any Chad or Kyle out there who wants to throw "TRIM" on his red convertible.

Or maybe you just really loved the mid-2010s — who doesn't, at the rate the 2020s are going — and Cam Newton won you a fantasy football championship in 2016. Sounds like "DABBING" is a good option for your pre-owned Infiniti. Been hitting the gym all winter and want fellow drivers on West Colfax to know how hard your bod is, but "SNACK" was taken at the DMV? "EDIBLE" isn't a bad second choice.

Hurry up, though, because you only have until April 20 to make a bid.

The campaign is mostly for laughs and goes toward a good cause (far be it from us to tell people which risks to take when they drive through Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Utah or Wyoming). But it'd be a lot funnier if CDOT didn't keep telling us how much of a problem stoned driving was. Just three days after the new round of license plates was revealed, CDOT announced that it was launching a new training program to help law enforcement recognize impaired drivers, and cited "a concerning uptick in fatal crashes that involve other drugs, such as cannabis."

With license plates that read "BLUNT" and "GOT OIL" on the road, and nearly half of CDOT's Sponsor a Highway signs bearing marijuana brands, it's hard to miss the "IRONY" here.

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Thomas Mitchell has been the news editor of Westword since February 2024. He's been with the publication since 2017 and was formerly its cannabis editor. He’s earned numerous awards and accolades for his work, including placing second for the Marijuana Enterprise Reporting Award from the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists in 2018; being named a Top Cannabis Journalist by Leafbuyer in 2020; and placing first for the College Sports Writing Award from the Arizona Press Club in 2014. His prior work experience includes Arizona Republic, Inman News and Fox Sports.

Contact: Thomas Mitchell

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