“A new report estimates the state’s legal cannabis industry will employ more than 63,000 people by 2025, about the same number of elementary school teachers in the state.

“The projection is included in a report published earlier this month by a cannabis research firm that predicts total pot jobs in the country could hit nearly 745,000 that year — if the drug remains illegal on the federal level and no additional states legalize it for recreational or medical use.

“The estimate for Illinois would mark a huge increase from the number of people currently working — legally — in the cannabis sector. The state’s medical pot industry now employs nearly 5,800 people, the report says.”

Read more from the Chicago Sun-Times.