States with legalized marijuana are enjoying new tax revenues and decreased crime as customers move from back-alleys to well-lit shops. But conflict looms as Attorney General Jeff Sessions signals stronger anti-marijuana law enforcement.

Donald Trump wants to be a jobs president, so lawmakers in states where marijuana is legal, are trying to show that decriminalized, regulated, controlled cannabis does create jobs. And the economic impact is significant -- legalization pioneers Washington state and Colorado each saw $1 billion in marijuana sales in 2016, accompanied by hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Oregon legalized recreational marijuana sales about a year and a half ago, and recently the Oregon State House of Representatives Committee on Economic Development and Trade requested a jobs and economic impact report.

The report, authored by economist and university professor Beau R. Whitney, found that Oregon is now home to nearly 1000 licensed cannabis businesses with another 1200+ applications in the pipeline. Those businesses employ more than 12,000 people including growers, processors and sellers, as well as those who don’t “touch the plant,” like security, regulatory, accounting, consulting, and real estate professionals. Mr. Whitney said this number was conservative because it did not include suppliers like those selling greenhouse equipment.

With workers earning an average wage of $12.13/hour, the total annual wages associated with these jobs are $315 million. Because those workers then use those wages to buy gas, eat at restaurants, etc. the report applied an economic impact multiplier of 4 for a total estimate of  $1.2 billion in economic activity related to these wages

“At present, I feel there are roughly 300,000 – 400,000 cannabis-touching jobs in the USA,” Whitney said. “That number will grow to more than a million as more states come online as legal markets. Cannabis is a job-creation machine.”