Cannabis driving Denver's growth? Not likely.

• Position: ENERGY OUTLOOK

Many people have argued that cannabis legalization has driven Colorado's rapid growth. At least in terms of direct jobs, the numbers say no.

The state's Marijuana Enforcement Division has licensed 25,442 people to work in either the sale and support services of marijuana for medicinal purposes, which has been legal since 2009, or in the so-called recreational or retail stores, which began operations in 2014. However, there's no way of knowing how many of those licensed are actually working.

"If you look at employment growth, we have been adding 65,000 to 75,000 jobs per year," says Brian Lewandowski, of the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, "it's a factor in our growth. But it's not the driver in our growth."

That's the same conclusion drawn by Carrie L. Makarewicz, an assistant professor in the Department of Planning & Design at the University of Colorado Denver. She has supervised study by her students about the impact of marijuana legalization on housing prices in metropolitan Denver. Their study has found no causation, and only low-level correlation.

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