“If the Trump administration goes through with a crackdown on states that have legalized marijuana, they will be taking billions of dollars away from state-sanctioned businesses and putting that money back into the hands of drug cartels.” National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) Executive Director Erik Altieri
When you think of jobs related to legal marijuana do you think of plumbers? Do you think of real estate brokers? In a recent survey by a marijuana industry trade publication sited by Forbes, about 100,000-150,000 people have jobs that directly involved legal weed, but its the untold numbers that provide ancillary services to the industry (electricians, accountants, ect.) whose jobs often go accounted for when talking about marijuana’s effect on the economy.
Vice News is citing a recent study published by New Frontier Data, a Washington, D.C., startup, that the pot industry would likely create more new jobs in the coming years than the manufacturing sector, which, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is forecast to lose 814,000 jobs by 2024. The same study projects legal marijuana sales will surpass $24 billion nationwide by 2025 and create at least 280,000 jobs within the next three years.
Last week White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said we can expect to see “greater enforcement” of federal marijuana laws under President Donald Trump. Spicer said the Trump supports medical marijuana but recreational marijuana use is “a very, very different subject.”
Currently recreational marijuana use is allowed Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. The November election voted in similar laws in Washington, D.C. Citizens, California, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Maine but they have not yet been enacted.
In 2016, the Colorado marijuana industry generated $1.3 billion in sales with a net state tax revenue of $200 million. The state’s pot businesses employ about 20,000 workers. With Colorado’s state population at 5.3 million, one can only imagine what profits and job creation would look like in a state like California with 38.8 million residents.
A national poll conducted by Quinnipiac University recently found that 71 percent of voters believe the government should not enforce federal marijuana laws against states that have voted to legalize the drug.
We encourage you do your own research and come to your own conclusions about the economic benefits of the cultivation, sale and taxation of this decreasingly controversial plant.
Perhaps we should all take a step back and listen to the wisdom of Stan Marsh to access the true dangers of marijuana:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27u1jw_randy-marsh-talk-about-marijuana_lifestyle