Legal Pot Brings Government Jobs To California

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - One of the things to blossom in California's emerging marijuana industry isn't green and leafy, it's government jobs.

Recreational marijuana use becomes legal in California in 2018 and the state is on a hiring binge to help bring order to the new pot economy.

Scientists. Tax collectors. Typists. Analysts. Lawyers.

There could be nearly 500 new jobs by mid-2019.

The swiftly expanding bureaucracy represents just one aspect of the complex challenge faced by California: Come January, the state will unite its longstanding medical cannabis industry with the newly legalized recreational one, creating what will be the country's largest legal pot market.

This year's state budget included about $100 million to fund regulatory programs for marijuana.

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