A Trump crackdown on legal weed could cost the U.S. a quarter million jobs

[Cattledog]

https://news.vice.com/story/a-trump-crackdown-on-legal-weed-could-cost-the-u-s-a-quarter-million-jobs

Legal weed is expected to create more than a quarter million new American jobs by 2020, according to a new study. That is, unless a potential federal crackdown snuffs out the growing industry in states where marijuana is now legal.

A report released recently by New Frontier Data, a Washington, D.C., startup linked to a group of marijuana industry investors, projects that legal marijuana sales will surpass $24 billion nationwide by 2025 and create at least 280,000 jobs within the next three years.

[Calculating]

1. I hope Trump is noticing all the backlash against a proposed crackdown

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-threat-recreational-marijuana-industry-colorado/
Widespread availability is changing attitudes. Americans once opposed legal pot. But a poll this month showed 71 percent do not want the government enforcing federal laws against marijuana in states that have already legalized medical or recreational marijuana.

The issue is a tough one for Colorado’s Gov. John Hickenlooper who opposed the state’s constitutional amendment making recreational pot legal. But now that it is legal, he said he wouldn’t allow state cops to join any federal crackdown.

“If the Justice Department does aggressively begin to prosecute and try to enforce federal law in states like Colorado, where it’s in our constitution, I think that is a step backwards,” Hickenlooper said.

As pot goes mainstream, it’s creating a lot of jobs – as many as 22,000 in Colorado.

“Instead of a cartel from somewhere else some other country, we are American grown, we are American sold, and we are American consumed,” Nassau said.

“For American jobs?” Petersen asked.

“For American jobs. What more can you ask for?” Nassau said.

Pot is sold in containers meant to be childproof, and it’s not sold to anyone under 21. But those in the black market don’t have those kinds of scruples. They will sell to anyone, and that includes kids.