Colorado’s Marijuana Legalization Creates Many New Jobs

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/colorado-s-marijuana-legalization-creates-new-jobs-1400941446

Colorado’s marijuana legalization is quickly turning the state into one of the most prosperous places in the country. Not only has Colorado projected marijuana sales to be a billion dollar industry, but in January of 2014 alone, the state pulled in over $3.5 million in tax revenue from legal pot sales. If that trend continues, the state will enjoy an additional $40 million in tax revenue in the first year of legalization. But that’s not all – you know those dismal unemployment figures plaguing the nation? Not in states where pot is legal. Colorado is reporting 10,000 new jobs, all from the legalization of both recreational and medical marijuana.

A recent report by the Marijuana Industry Group indicates that since January, the state’s new-found recreational pot trade has created upwards of 10,000 new jobs, with 2,000 joining the green collar workforce just in the past few months – this doesn’t include jobs created by medical marijuana sales.

The state is now enjoying one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation – 6% – which is the lowest it has been since the recession started. So much for those old sayings about pot-heads being lazy. That’s an additional 10,000 people in a labor force out working, instead of collecting unemployment. That’s good for everyone.

Bud trimmers, for example, are being paid $15 an hour, while protestors have had to picket at McDonald’s headquarters because the company doesn’t want to raise their minimum pay to that amount. I’d say medicinal weed and hemp are far better for our economy than McD’s fries anyway.What’s more – the marijuana industry only makes up 0.4 percent of Colorado’s 2.6 million jobs; all of the positions are new and did not exist a year ago. This means that legalization basically created an economy out of thin air. And even more enticing is this little fact – many of the jobs are paying higher than the national minimum wage.

[kelliekat44]

1. The economy will grow there, people will prosper, get rich, and enjoy their highs...while thousands

of black men and women sit in jails as their families fall farther and farther into desolation and desperation for daring to buy, sell, or smoke this same weed. It like robbing a bank is stealing while bilking millions from working men and women through robbing pension funds and retirement funds is just the cost of doing business. Like shooting a kid over a pair of sneakers is somehow more evil than shooting a kid for just walking down the street eating skittles. Any wonder more people just don't go crazy...

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Flipping on to MSNBC this morning,

looking for a weekend show, I found out that before 'Up w/ Steve Kornacki', MSNBC has one of those godawful prison shows on. The episode on today apparently had some sort of 'scared straight' thing going on, where adult convicts were actually being encouraged to commit assault and battery on juveniles (no long term damage, just unwanted contact) while shouting in their faces about how smoking weed was going to land them in jail long term. Not only was it a disgusting display, it backstopped that awful truth, that we've still got to dismantle the idiotic war on drugs nationwide that sends recreational pot users to sit in jail, ruining their lives, and putting 50-60k a year of taxpayer money into private prison shareholder pockets.

You want a crime? It's right there. Setting up a system in which rich people get given even more money by throwing poor people into jail for trivial 'crimes'.

[JNelson6563]

3. Not split hairs or anything...

but there are a lot of white people in the same situation. You would be surprised at how many areas of the country are not very diverse. In those areas, since almost everyone's white, the low hanging fruit for the police state is of course the poor and/or the young who don't come from affluent families.

Just sayin'. I think we should just say there are way too many people unjustly in jail because of pot. This is a good cause for all people to come together on. Divisive language doesn't help.

Julie

[retread]

4. From the ACLU report "The War on Marijuana in Black and White"

"Extreme Racial Disparities in Marijuana
Possession Arrests Exist Across the Country:
Blacks Are 3.73 Times More Likely Than Whites
to Be Arrested for Marijuana Possession "

"In the states with the worst disparities, Blacks were on average over six times more
likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites. In the worst offending
counties across the country, Blacks were over 10, 15, even 30 times more likely to be
arrested than white residents in the same county. These glaring racial disparities in
marijuana arrests are not a northern or southern phenomenon, nor a rural or urban
phenomenon, but rather a national one."

[JNelson6563]

5. Ok, you may note I was not disputing your point

though you seem to have missed mine.

I am well aware of the national averages and all of that. I was merely pointing out there are different levels of diversity in areas of this country and areas like that do a fine job of feeding white flesh to the private prison sharks too. Just thought their plight deserved recognition as well. I happen to know a few. Seems to me they got as screwed by this nightmare situation as the law allowed and that was plenty.

The fact of the matter is that everyone benefits from legalization. Of course, some more than others and won't that be a nice turning of the tables?

Julie

[IronLionZion]

8. It has to start somewhere

I fully expect more states to legalize it. My state just decriminalized it. Enough states can force the federal government to reschedule it and release a lot of the imprisoned. Prisons are overcrowded as it is.

[brewens]

6. They now need to adjust drug testing so that trace amounts of THC don't count.

I know a few real good guys that can't or won't give up smoking weed. They work but are restricted to just what kind of jobs they can even apply for because of pre-employment drug screening.

I do kind of think a guy should be able to lay off the weed to find a job but it's not so easy for some. I did it though. I quit for about 45 days when I was job hunting until I got hired, and that has turned into eight years now because of random testing. I think I'm about to move into a job where I won't have to have a commercial drivers liscence. If that happens I can smoke again! The only hitch would be if they can test me for having an accident on the job. I don't think that is written up in our policies.

[Ohio Joe]

7. Some companies are adjusting...

I recently got a job in IT here in Colorado, normally I would have expected to have to take a urine test to get it (I have had to do so for many years) but that was not the case... I was in fact told that the companies policy had changed now that weed was legal, they were dropping drug tests and now treating weed like alcohol... No drinking on the job, no getting high on the job but otherwise it was not considered anything the company cared about.

Certainly this is not the norm yet... And probably won't be for a number of years but adjustments are starting to occur.

[IronLionZion]

9. Hopefully these states will be next

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/states-legalize-weed_n_5162737.html