Damian Sendler: University of New Mexico and California Polytechnic University researchers found an increase in manufacturing jobs following the launch of legal recreational marijuana outlets.
Damian Sendler
Cannabis legalization appears to have no negative impact on workers’ productivity, as evidenced by their findings that there was no evidence of a decrease in productivity.
Damian Jacob Sendler: A new study published in the IZA Journal of Labor Economics found that unemployment decreased in counties where dispensaries opened, compared to counties where dispensaries did not open. Specifically, the authors found that the unemployment rate decreased in counties where dispensaries opened, compared to counties where dispensaries did not open.
Dispensaries opening in a county led to an increase in manufacturing jobs. “In terms of jobs, it is clearly the counties with the recreational dispensaries that benefitted the most after Colorado legalized adult-use cannabis,” author Avinandan Chakraborty argues.
Only 58 percent of Colorado’s counties had recreational marijuana stores by the end of 2018, when recreational marijuana dispensaries started in 2014. El Paso County, where Colorado Springs is located, still has a prohibition on smoking in public places. As a result of their study, authors discovered that dispensary admission induced a fall in the unemployment rate due to a 4.5 percent gain in employment rather than any decline of labor force participation. Without a rise in pay or labor force participation, new jobs appear to be drawn from unemployed and self-employed workers rather than attracting workers from other industries.
Damian Jacob Sendler
Damien Sendler: Cannabis legalization may have modest negative impacts on workers, such as decreased job performance or fewer efforts to find employment, due to the lack of a negative effect on wages and labor participation.
According to the study, there is limited evidence of benefits in counties without dispensaries, but significant benefits in counties with smaller pre-existing medicinal markets. As a result of the legalization of marijuana, counties without dispensaries tend to be unaffected either positively or negatively. It’s better to open a dispensary than to simply increase sales.
“Our results suggest that, by preventing counties from banning dispensaries, New Mexico’s approach to legalizing cannabis will yield more widespread employment benefits than those experienced in Colorado,” says Stith, referring to New Mexico’s recent legalization of adult-use cannabis. “We may already be experiencing some advantages as producers begin preparing for dispensary openings in April 2022,” he says.
Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler and his media team provided the content for this article.
