Small town America is disappearing. Less people are living in small towns and more people are flocking to urban areas and suburban areas where jobs are more common. It’s something that has been going on for decades. Small towns have fragile economies, often revolving around one or two major businesses. When those business, or the industries they are in, go under the towns usually go with them.

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, no stranger to shocking the political establishment, has set his sights on cannabis legalization, recently penning the book, Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto.

Two bipartisan bills that would exclude marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and leave regulating the plant to the states have been introduced.

The most recent piece of legislation, titled the “Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017”, was introduced by representatives Tom Garrett (R-VA) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) on Monday.

If passed, federal criminal penalties for possessing and growing the plant would be eliminated, and the states would have power and flexibility to establish their own marijuana policies free from federal intervention.

In a statement, Representative Garrett said:

Legal weed is expected to create more than a quarter million new American jobs by 2020, according to a new study. That is, unless a potential federal crackdown snuffs out the growing industry in states where marijuana is now legal.

A report released recently by New Frontier Data, a Washington, D.C., startup linked to a group of marijuana industry investors, projects that legal marijuana sales will surpass $24 billion nationwide by 2025 and create at least 280,000 jobs within the next three years.

The White House hinted, last week, that it may crack down on states that have legalized recreational marijuana.

Marijuana industry experts hope a new jobs prediction report might take the target off of the legal pot business.

According to a report from Frontier Data, marijuana-related jobs are set to outpace manufacturing jobs in the United States by 2020.

The report estimates over the next three years, legalized marijuana will create 300,000 jobs.

Although many do not expect to see cannabis legalized for several years due to the massive amount of money against it from the likes of big tobacco, big pharma and big alcohol, we beg to differ!

The legal cannabis train left the station years ago and the amount of money needed to rollback this multi-billion-dollar industry is unfathomable. On top of this, the unemployment rate would immediately increase since hundreds of thousands of people would be out of work.

The Common-Sense Tactic

A stark rejoinder to what Sean Spicer said on Thursday about applying federal drug laws to recreational marijuana use even in states that have legalized the drug. The public’s not keen on that idea.

And neither is Trump’s party:

Marijuana workers generally aren’t worried about the safety of their jobs selling joints, cultivating plants and testing edibles, according to a new study from Colorado researchers.

However, nearly a quarter (23 percent) of those working at Colorado’s cannabis companies never receive health and safety training and education varies widely for those that do, according to the “Work and Well-Being in the Colorado Cannabis Industry” report.

The report recommends cannabis businesses develop, implement and repeatedly evaluate formal health and safety training programs for all industry workers.

Despite new figures that show Colorado’s marijuana sales topped $1 billion for the first time ever last year, there is some concern in the state over what could happen to the burgeoning business under new U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Sessions is on record in the past saying that “Good people don’t smoke marijuana” and that “marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized” and that it is “a very real danger.”

On Wednesday, the U.S. Congress voted to confirm Senator Jeff Sessions to the head of the Department of Justice. The Alabama Republican was a very controversial pick by President Donald Trump, as lawmakers and the public accused the politician of racism, sexism, and bigotry.

“I can’t express how appreciative I am for those of you who stood by me during this difficult time”, said Sessions, “By your vote tonight I have been given a real challenge. I’ll do my best to be worthy of it.”