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The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has officially thrown the weight of their 200,000+ members behind CA Proposition 19, the ballot measure to legalize cannabis possession for all adults.

“We view Proposition 19 as an enhanced version of the previous proposition, that creates taxable revenue, and produces jobs in agriculture, health care, retail and possibly textile,” said George Landers, executive director of the food workers union. “We further believe that the proposition will deprive narco-traffickers of a significant source of criminal revenue.”

The California arm of the union – Local 5 – has 26,000 members in the state and has already started to organize for the push to November. As I’ve said many times, every endorsement of Prop 19 is important since the vote is expected to be close. Having another 26,000 committed foot soldiers in this battle is going to have a huge influence.

Of course cynics will say that a food union is looking for increased munchies. Maybe so, but either way, they are looking to create jobs just like many other supporters of Prop 19. Job creation is stagnant in the U.S. and we need to get it jump started again or even more people will suffer.

- Joe Klare