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As retail unions shrink, leaders believe the nascent medical marijuana industry has the potential to deliver hundreds of thousands of new jobs for their members.

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Brennan Thicke, left, a founder of the Venice Beach Care Center, and Rigo Valdez, an organizing director with United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), pose together at the medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, Feb. 6, 2013.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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A UFCW Local 770 Union Shop sticker is pictured in the window at the Venice Beach Care Center, one of three medical marijuana shops in Los Angeles that are staffed by dues-paying union members.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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Ayrn Taylor, a United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) member and employee at the Venice Beach Care Center, displays medical marijuana at the dispensary in Los Angeles, Feb. 6, 2013.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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Mr. Valdez, left, and Mr. Thicke stand in front of a display of prices. Another 49 dispensaries in the city plan to enter into labour agreements with the UFCW this year, the union says.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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California Supreme Court justices listen to testimony during a special session concerning medical marijuana dispensaries, in San Francisco Feb. 5, 2013. The justices suggested that state law might empower local governments to ban medical marijuana shops.HANDOUT/Reuters

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This Jan. 26, 2013 photo taken at a grow house in Denver shows a marijuana plant ready to be harvested. Last fall, voters made Washington and Colorado the first states to pass laws legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and setting up systems of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores.Ed Andrieski/The Associated Press

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Ayrn Taylor displays medical marijuana at the Venice Beach Care Center Feb. 6, 2013.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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Medical marijuana is packaged for sale in one-gram packages at the Northwest Patient Resource Center medical marijuana dispensary in Seattle, Wash. During the past few years unions, led by the UFCW, have played an increasingly significant role in campaigns to allow medical marijuana, now legal in California, 17 other states and Washington, D.C.Ted S. Warren/The Associated Press

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A marijuana starter plant is for sale at a medical marijuana dispensary in Seattle. An analysis by Sea Change Strategies, a research firm for non-profit organizations, estimated the medical marijuana market could grow to $8.9-billion (U.S.) by 2016.ANTHONY BOLANTE/Reuters

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Mr. Valdez, left, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Thicke pose together at the medical marijuana dispensary. The UFCW believes the medical marijuana industry could support jobs across the country, from growers to truck drivers, carpenters and retail clerks.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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This Jan. 26, 2013 photo shows a a bar code attached to a marijuana plant at a grow house in Denver, Colo. The codes are assigned to each plant and follow it through the growing and distribution process.Ed Andrieski/The Associated Press

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The bar codes are then attached to containers of processed marijuana.Ed Andrieski/The Associated Press

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Clayton Holton, 27, poses in his wheelchair Feb. 1, 2013, in his room in Rochester, N.H. Mr. Holton suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy and used marijuana for pain relief while visiting California. He hopes the New Hampshire legislature will pass a similar medical marijuana bill.Jim Cole/The Associated Press

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