5 towns saved from ruin by the booming legal weed industry

The legal marijuana industry brought in upwards of $4 billion in sales in 2016, according to a new report from the Marijuana Business Daily. And small-town America is riding the high.

In the eight US states where recreational marijuana is legal, the marijuana "green rush" has breathed new life into the rural communities that welcome it. Cultivation facilities, dispensaries, and infused products companies create jobs and tax revenue for the cities and states, which then supports public infrastructure and community efforts.

Here are five towns that came back from the brink thanks to legal weed.

Residents of Sedgwick, Colorado, were in talks to disband the town when a medical marijuana dispensary opened for business.

Population: 150

A small town on the Colorado prairie saw its economy tumble in the early 2000s. The buildings were in disrepair. As one resident, a town clerk, put it, "

Adelanto, California, struggled to recover when its largest employer, an Air Force base, left town. Legal marijuana gave respectable jobs to people..

Population: 33,000

A sleepy city located in

Pueblo County, Colorado, home of one of the largest legal open-air marijuana farms in America, is sending students to college on the $425,000 in pot taxes it made.

Population: 161,000

Pueblo County, once an economic center of the state's plains, has been struggling to recover from a collapsed steel industry. Its unemployment rate, at 7.2%, ranks among the highest in Colorado. But newcomers have migrated there in recent years, hoping to find work in weed.

Since the first dispensary opened in Pueblo County in 2014, cultivation facilities, infused products manufacturers, and over 100 In 2015, more than one-third of construction projects there were tied to marijuana.

The county's economic recovery is ongoing. But county officials say the industry generates almost $4 million in annual tax revenue, which funds 4H and Future Farmers of America efforts, medical marijuana research at Colorado State University Pueblo, and a first-of-its-kind scholarship program that will send graduating high school seniors to local universities this fall.

Huntington, Oregon, sells legal marijuana to more customers than there are residents.

Population: 435

Every year since 2000, a dusty Oregon border town has seen its population grow smaller. The cement factory moved away, and the dwindling residents of Huntington began to lose hope.

But where a convenience store and a car service station once stood, a pair of marijuana dispensaries are thriving. They serve as many as 600 customers a day, with many coming from Idaho, where marijuana is still illegal. (It is a federal crime to transport marijuana across state lines.) The lines can reach up to two and a half hours, so people visit the local restaurants to pass the time.

Huntington expects to rake in

Trinidad, Colorado, went from ghost town to marijuana boom town.

Population: 8,200

abyss of nothingness," according to one longtime resident. Sixteen dispensaries — including one located inside an old Pepsi factory — supply a steady stream of customers,