California capital could reap billions
from legalized pot, study says
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[October 18, 2016]
By Sharon Bernstein
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California's
state capital region could reap 20,000 jobs and generate $4.2 billion in
business if it becomes a hub for a legalized marijuana industry, a study
released on Monday showed, weeks before voters decide whether to allow
recreational use of the drug.
The report from the University of the Pacific in Stockton was
commissioned by the cannabis investment company Truth Enterprises, one
of hundreds of businesses counting on voters to legalize pot next month.
"The Sacramento region should be to cannabis what Detroit is to
automobiles in terms of both a center of innovation as well as
production," said Daniel Conway, who left his job as chief of staff to
Sacramento Mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson to become Truth
Enterprises' managing partner. "This region has the ability to be to
cannabis what Sonoma and Napa are to wine."
If local leaders choose to limit the number and type of marijuana
businesses, the study showed, legalization would bring as few as 1,600
jobs and generate about $322 million in revenues, wages and other
economic impacts.
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Polls indicate voters in the most populous U.S. state are likely to
legalize marijuana on Nov. 8, instantly creating a massive marketplace
and making California the fifth U.S. state to permit recreational pot
use.
Centering some of that business in the Sacramento region would take
advantage of the area's proximity to farmland and agricultural
processing facilities as well as such population hubs such as the San
Francisco Bay Area and tourist destinations like Lake Tahoe and the Napa
Valley, the study said.
Local business and political leaders have for years searched for ways to
reinvigorate the slightly faded feel of Sacramento area, where empty
storefronts mar numerous shopping centers and abandoned houses sport
boarded-up windows despite nearly a decade of slow recovery from the
Great Recession.
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![](../images/101816pics/news_g9.jpg)
Cannabis grower Steve Dillon tends to his plants on his farm in
Humboldt County, California, U.S. August 28, 2016. REUTERS/Rory
Carroll/File photo
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Downtown is undergoing a massive facelift around a new arena for the
NBA Kings, with dozens of new shops and restaurants planned. The
city is close to winning a major league soccer franchise, and its
restaurant scene is growing.
"The entire Sacramento business community is looking at this with
different eyes today," said Joshua Woods, chief executive officer of
the Sacramento Region Business Association. "With this many jobs,
you can't ignore it."
The University of the Pacific report offers the first hard look at
the potential economic impact of the marijuana business on the
Sacramento region, Woods said. But that does not mean his group - or
other business and political leaders - is ready to make the area a
hub.
For that to happen, policymakers would need to be persuaded that a
busy marijuana growing and processing industry would not also be a
magnet for crime, addiction and other problems.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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