A new study says that an estimated 1,500 jobs will be created by Arizona’s new medical marijuana industry.
Tim Hogan, a researcher with Arizona State University who wrote the study, said he used figures from Oregon’s established medical marijuana industry to estimate the size of Arizona’s market, reports Julia Shumway of Cronkite News Service.
“It’s a pretty simple industry,” Hogan said. “There’s not too much nuance. The main driving mechanism is how many patients.”
Hogan’s study, paid for by the Regulated Dispensaries of Arizona Association, indicated the industry has the potential to directly create 1,500 jobs for marijuana growers and dispensary employees, and also indirectly create 5,000 more jobs at places like grocery stores.
Arizona has about 38,000 registered medical marijuana patients and is allowed 126 dispensaries. Only a handful of dispensaries are open so far.
His study only models the straight economic impact of the industry instead of offering a more extensive cost-benefit analysis, according to Hogan.
“Given the size of the industry, it seems it will generate substantial income and tax revenue,” Hogan said.
Dispensaries brought in nearly $200 million in sales in Colorado in 2012, according to that state’s Department of Revenue. The shops paid about $5.5 million in state sales tax last year.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who has sought to block Arizona’s medical marijuana law since it went into effect, is seemingly unwilling to view marijuana as anything but a crime, regardless of what the voters had to say. According to Montgomery, any study that quantifies medical marijuana’s possible economic benefits is inherently flawed because the state spends money on criminal prosecution.
“It’s crock,” Montgomery said. “None of those studies that purport to show an economic impact take into account the criminal impact.”
Carolyn Short, chairwoman of Keep AZ Drug Free, an extremist anti-marijuana group formed in opposition to the 2010 ballot measure that legalized medicinal cannabis in the state, said it’s important to remember that all marijuana, for any purpose, is illegal under federal law.
She said economic projections like Hogan’s study have to be done in a bubble, since every part of the medical marijuana business violates federal law.
“Every single time a dispensary sells a joint or an ounce, they’re doing something illegal,” Short said.
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Arizona Study Says Medical Marijuana Will Create 1,500 Jobs
Article by Steve Elliot for Hemp News