Could legal marijuana dollars be the boost the U.S. economy needs during a pandemic-triggered recession?

America’s driving down a long stretch of bad road, and it doesn’t look like the exit will be anytime soon.

At least 22,000 people have died from COVID-19 related complications in the U.S. since the onset of the pandemic, and, in the past three weeks, nearly 17 million have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment benefits. By comparison, nearly 3,000 died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and about 13 million lost their jobs during the Great Depression.

Despite the havoc COVID-19 continues to wreak upon our lives, communities and the economy, some believe cannabis could provide an avenue for recovery.

Jobs, jobs, jobs

Jackie Cornell, chief of health and policy innovations at 1906, said legalizing adult-use cannabis would create thousands of jobs in the leaf-touching industry and through auxiliary services — “construction, security, materials, marketing, legal…the list of work created beyond the license holders themselves is sizable.”

“While an outbreak of this size and scale is a once in a lifetime event, COVID is highlighting the fragility of our collective safety net,” Cornell told NJ Cannabis Insider. “Unemployment is soaring, the strain on our healthcare system is unrelenting and we still have a long road ahead of us before we return to ‘business as usual.’” [Read more at NJ.com]