Pot industry ranks second in British Columbian GDP contribution
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008Pot industry ranks second in GDP contribution
A B.C. magazine now places the province’s marijuana industry in second place for its contribution to the B.C. gross domestic project.BC Business magazine said recently that it now is in second place ahead of the forest sector and behind construction.
Forest Minister Rich Coleman reacted to the announcement by saying, “There’s nothing a ministry can do to change a marketplace.”
BC Business places the provincial marijuana industry at $7.5-billion with a labour force of over 250,000.
Eric Nash of Valley-based cannabis company, Island Harvest, reacted to the news by saying, “More than 156,000 people in British Columbia use marijuana for health purposes. Thousands of unemployed B.C. forest workers could become gainfully employed in the well-established cannabis industry.”
Island Harvest has been distributing and selling medical marijuana to customers for the past six years under federal licensing from Ottawa.
Wendy Little, his partner in Island Harvest, added, “Provincially licensed operations in B.C. have been supplying marijuana to thousands of people for over 10 years now. It’s time to integrate cannabis sensibly into our economy.”
Legally-licenced growers, Little and Nash have called upon the B.C. government to implement provincial policy and declare the cannabis production sector a renewable and sustainable health based industry to create employment and economic growth.
The economics of marijuana and hemp are likely to be the deciding factors in overturning adult marijuana prohibition in North America. With farmers needing a cash crop, drivers needing biodiesel fuels, people needing affordable medicines, the world needing sustainable food and ecologically-friendly fiber crops, and governments straining to balance budgets, the prohibition of cannabis will soon become a money-losing proposition, even compared to the profits some industries make from prohibition.
