Category: Marijuana

There is an interesting article in Leafly “Cannabis Jobs Count” part of a series on jobs in the legal cannabis economy.  Leafly researchers estimated there are 122,814 legal full-time cannabis jobs in America.

That number includes an estimated 58,000 full-time jobs in states where both the medical and social use of cannabis is legal, as well as another 65,000 full-time jobs in states that permit a medical marijuana market.

In the medical marijuana market, California led the job list with an estimated 43,374 full-time jobs (compared with Colorado at 23,407 jobs and Washington with 22,952 jobs).

Researchers set the low estimate for California’s medical cannabis market value at $2.1 billion and the high at $2.7 billion.  The article contains a good explanation of how they came to the numbers for market value and jobs.

Read the full article here at – How Many Jobs Depend on Legal Cannabis.

Investigators from Columbia University in New York and the University of California at Davis analyzed traffic fatality data from the years 1985 to 2014.  On average, Medical Marijuana Law states had lower traffic fatality rates than states where medical marijuana was illegal.

Medical marijuana laws were associated with immediate reductions in traffic fatalities in those aged 15 to 24 and 25 to 44 years, and with additional yearly gradual reductions in those aged 25 to 44 years.  Dispensaries were also associated with traffic fatality reductions in those aged 25 to 44 years.

The reductions in traffic fatalities may be due to people substituting marijuana for alcohol.  “It is also possible that states with medical marijuana laws and lower traffic fatality rates may be related to lower levels of alcohol-impaired driving behavior in these states,” noted Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Mailman School and senior author.

Read the study at – Medical Marijuana Law & Traffic Fatalities which was published in the American Journal of Public Health.  There is more at this Columbia University article.