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Panhandling For Pot? Increase May Be Linked To Recreational Marijuana

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - On any given day, at just about any hour, a person holding a sign asking for spare change can be spotted in Summit County.

Panhandling is no longer just an urban problem and many people believe Colorado's new legal recreation marijuana laws could be the reason mountain towns are starting to see a panhandling problem for the first time.

Brian Heyden, originally from Buffalo, New York, was standing in front of the Frisco Walmart store with a sign in hand.

"I can make between $30 and $40 an hour," Heyden told CBS 4 Mountain Newsroom Reporter Matt Kroschel. "I came here for the marijuana, for medicine.

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(credit: CBS)

With CBS4 cameras right there, one person pulled up and handed Brian a container filled with what appeared to be marijuana. Brian says that has happened before. If he does not get the weed outright from strangers, the money he makes holding his sign more than pays for marijuana.

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"It is for medicine," Heyden said.

The Towns of Frisco and Silverthorne have passed panhandling ordinances which ban the act on public right of ways, but town officials say there is little more they can do about the problem.

Heyden is in his mid-40s and has lived out of his backpack for decades. He said he sees a lot of younger people these days "flying a sign."

"They are so young and I use marijuana for medicine I think they just want to get high for fun," Heyden added.

Statistics are hard to come by for the actual number of people panhandling in a community like Frisco because the panhandlers are on the move.

City leaders in Vail recently banned recreational marijuana stores, sighting the increase in crime and panhandling in other mountain towns that do allow sales, as a major factor for their ban.

Matt Kroschel covers news throughout Colorado working from the CBS4 Mountain Newsroom. Send story ideas to mrkroschel@cbs.com and connect with him on Twitter @Matt_Kroschel.

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