The Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) has issued a report detailing that the sector stands to create more than 50,000 new jobs by 2030 if the federal government were to follow through on the Biden Administration’s plans to reschedule cannabis. The group submitted the report on Monday to meet this week’s deadline for public comments related to the rescheduling plan.
The proposed rescheduling move — which would shift cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act — would not federally legalize cannabis but it would relax some of the harshest restrictions on the industry. Primarily, cannabis licensees would be finally spared from the federal Section 280E tax code, which prohibits tax deductions for companies that deal in Schedule I substances — and the potential tax relief is the primary factory behind those 50,000+ potential new jobs, the report said.
The report — signed by MCBA’s President Jahir Johnson and Vice President Frederika McClary Easley — consults survey data from 206 cannabis licensees across 32 states, including 171 businesses that directly cultivate, process, manufacture, distribute, test, or sell cannabis products.
“Our comprehensive survey and detailed economic analysis projects that rescheduling and the resulting [tax] reform would result in the creation of 55,500 jobs by 2030, generating as much as $2.7 billion in wages and $5.6 billion in new economic activity. We therefore encourage DEA to act with deliberate speed in publishing a final rule moving marijuana to schedule III.” — Statement signed by Johnson and McClary Easley, in the report
The survey also found that 80% of cannabis companies in the U.S. cite tax and finance issues as significant problems.
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