Michigan’s licensing of medical and recreational marijuana businesses has been a windfall for Lansing’s budget, but not the legal marijuana job market, according to the latest jobs report released by Leafly, a marijuana industry media and technology company.

“Two years ago there were hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries operating in an unlicensed environment,” said Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott. “At that time we estimated the number of legal cannabis jobs at roughly the 15,000 level.

“As the state has moved to create a more highly regulated system for both medical and adult-use sales, hundreds of those formerly legal dispensaries (provisioning centers) have either closed or moved into a non-legal existence.”

Since Leafly’s annual jobs count only includes legal jobs, Barcott said Michigan took a “big hit” in 2019, losing an estimated 7,000 legal marijuana industry jobs.

“We now estimate the legal industry supports a little more than 8,200 full-time-equivalent jobs,” Barcott said. “That’s a huge loss — but consider that we’re still waiting to see legal, licensed cannabis stores open in Detroit, the state’s largest city.

“We expect many of those legal jobs to return as more cities allow licensed stores to open.” [Read more at MLive.com]