The legal cannabis industry is thriving in the U.S., reaching its highest-ever number of jobs and sales, a new report shows.
Vangst, a cannabis industry job platform, found that at the beginning of the year, there were 440,445 full-time-equivalent jobs in the legal cannabis industry—a 5.4 percent increase from 2023. Annual sales of legal marijuana, recreational and medical, increased by 10.3 percent to $28.8 billion last year, it added.
Legal cannabis use across the U.S. has surged over the past decade, and jobs in the industry are at a high. In 2014, Colorado became the first state to legalize the sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes. Prior to that, the drug had been permitted for medical usage in a small number of states. Almost half of all U.S. states and territories have now approved cannabis for recreational use. But despite the liberalization of state laws, marijuana continues to be illegal under federal law.
California tops the table for the most marijuana jobs per state as of March, with 78,618 positions, Vangst reported. Michigan has 46,746 jobs in the sector, placing it second. Florida, with 30,238 jobs, ranks third—up from fourth in February 2023—despite being a medical-use-only state.
[Read more at Newsweek]Copyright
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