Democratic Administration Continues to Arrest Increasingly Unionized Marijuana Workforce

The New Republic examines the connection between labor and the medical marijuana and burgeoning legalized pot business. Despite the usually strong bond between the Democratic party and unions, the Obama administration's Department of Justice has continued to incarcerate dispensary workers and seize the assets of the owners.

This is despite the fact that those that work behind the counter in the medical cannabis industry are increasingly unionized by the United Food and Commercial Workers and that he proprietors of those businesses fully support their employees' right to organize. Medical marijuana is one of the few bright spots for unions, which have faced decreased membership.

The hippies usually associated with the access movement are inclined to allow unionization, while the newer, business-minded owners see labor as a way to legitimize their business.

The organization efforts of the UFCW also helped move legalization from a fringe issue, which historically had little attention and a negligible chance of passing, to a mainstream political cause that passed in Washington and Colorado as well as getting 45-plus percent of the vote in California.