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Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform

“Current Trends and Job Creation in the Medical Marijuana Business”

By Douglas Berman

The title of this post is the student-selected topic for discussion this week in my Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform seminar. Here is the outline of issues and resources the students prepared to foster and facilitate discussion:

MyExperience Working at a Marijuana Dispensary – One girl’sfirst-hand account of her experience working at a dispensary in California forone year

14 Kindsof Jobs Sustained by Marijuana – According to Indeed.com, which tracks job listings, in 2011 there wasover a 3,000 percent increase in the medical marijuana industry since 2005. This is a list of 14 types of jobs available in medical cannabis.

Colorado

YourGenius Idea for a 420-Friendly Lazer Tag Arena Could Soon Become Reality inColorado –Colorado’sMarijuana Enforcement Division (MED) is accepting applications for businessproposals, but only existing medical marijuana shop owners are allowed to applyfor the recreational marijuana licenses for the first nine months. Investorshave committed “well over $1 million” to Colorado marijuana companies.

High-PayingJobs Available in New Medical Marijuana Industry? – Dixie Elixirs,Denver-based company that manufactures medicated edibles, employed directly inexcess of 10,000 employees, including high-salary executive jobs, scientists,and attorneys. 

Illinois

CannabisCareer Institute Hits Chicago to Help Residents Cash in on ‘The New Gold Rush’– CCI is continuing itseducational tour in Chicago, teaching students the ins and outs of owing adispensary or grow operation through their “pot college.” 

Montana

MMGAStudy Finds That 1,400 New Jobs Created In State of Montana 

Also Check Out: http://cannajobs.comhttps://cannabiscareerinstitute.comhttp://www.thcjobs.com

Marijuana Entrepreneurs, Seminars, and Finance

 These are all resources thatpertain to creating your own marijuana business. They are comprised of seminarservices, RSS feeds regarding important marijuana entrepreneur news, andderivative sources of some economics that marijuana creates.

Comparison to Casino andAlcohol

Links with state-bystate jobs numbers for the wine and spirits industry (not including the beerindustry).  No need to read through all of them, just click on a few linksto get a sense of the alcohol industry’s job impacts. http://www.wswa.org/search_results.php?search=repeal%20prohibition&type=news

A PDF fact sheet of thetotal number of jobs the alcohol industry supports: http://www.discus.org/assets/1/7/ContributionFactSheet.pdf

A brief survey ofcasino jobs across America: http://www.americangaming.org/industry-resources/research/fact-sheets/casino-employment

An employment studyfrom “The Journal of Gambling Business and Economics.”Apparently that’s a thing.   It’s a technical read, so they shouldread the descriptive parts and skip the technical parts.  http://www.walkerd.people.cofc.edu/360/AcademicArticles/Cotti2008.pdf  

    Anotheremployment study, done by the St. Louis Federal Reserve.  The gaming hashad a positive impact on employment in localities across the country.  http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/04/01/garrett.pdf

    Miscellaneous

    1)In addition to the educational aspects of the store, weGrow provides anywhere between 15 and 20 full- and part-time jobs. But Mann says it’s the ancillaryjobs   created that make a difference, includinghiring a doctor on site for medical marijuana evaluations; professors to teachclasses, including technicians and experienced growers; design and construction positions; security positions, anddistributors.  About 75 indirect jobs are created with the opening of eachweGrow store.   http://aznow.biz/small-biz/wegrow-phoenix-opens-cultivates-opportunities-arizona%29

    2)By recognizing the potential for medical marijuana business advertisements, the Sacramento News and Review is expanding its distribution and hiring more staff. http://www.today.com/id/43641235/ns/business-us_business/#.Um8iJiRieiY

    3)Interesting stats — apparently only a quarter of people think legalized potwould lead to more jobs in their community, while 57% believe there would be noeffect. Makes you wonder if this is a (mis)perception that should be hitharder by legalization reformers.  If the benefits can be demonstrated tothose in the 57% camp maybe you pull in some new supporters.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/legalizing-pot-will-not-b_n_544526.html?

    4)Mr. McPherson said the city stood to reap more of what he called the “secondarybenefits.”   “You’ve got accountants that are working for them,you’ve got all the security companies that are working for them, you have labsthat are working for them, you have bakeries that are baking all the edibles,you have union employees that are getting great benefits, you have deliveryservices, hydroponic stores, doctors get some benefit,” he said. “It’s thesecondary market that gains from this, and all of those pay business taxes tous.”   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/cities-turn-to-a-crop-for-cash-medical-marijuana.html?_r=2&

     

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    Medical Marijuana Commentary and Debate, Medical Marijuana Data and Research and Taxation information and issues