The cannabis industry is creating jobs worth having
A regular at the coffee shop where I worked overheard me complaining about my job and offered me a better one ... in the cannabis industry.
It has come
as a personal shock to realize that all of the road construction in
Reno, Nevada, no longer bothers me. Anyone traveling through it knows it
can be the worst part of driving to work in the mornings, especially if
you're running late, or not particularly excited about where it is you
have to go. Luckily for me and many other people I have been privileged
to meet over the past year, work has become something worth sitting in
traffic for.
Getting my current job
happened to me completely by random chance: A regular at the coffee shop
where I worked overheard me complaining about my job and offered me a
better one.
That job happened to be in the cannabis industry.
One
year later, this job has become the best job I’ve ever had. I cannot
claim to have weathered the storm of transition from medical to
recreational, but I had the honor of being present at several early
budtender parties. I saw the beginning of this now-booming industry
right as it gained enough momentum to burst into completely legal bloom,
and those people I met and lived among shone like angels.
Angels
run ragged, that is. Overworked and underpaid, yes, but wildly
passionate about both the industry and cannabis itself. Willing to be
run ragged, gray with exhaustion, yet glowing with the inner
luminescence of the True Believer. I saw people leave well-paying jobs,
eager to share their own personal knowledge with no fear of criminal
charges. (Conversely, I saw people leave awful, dead-end jobs, eager to
start a career. Oftentimes, there are mixtures of both.)
Counterpoint: Colorado governor says there's no problem with legal marijuana. He's completely wrong.
What
the change from medical to recreational had taught them — us — was that
infrastructure would be needed. And nothing can be more exhausting than
building infrastructure for the sale and cultivation of what is a
Schedule 1 drug. Every last half-gram must be accounted for, both on
paper and through software inadequate for the job. It can wear on a
body, that kind of strain.
There’s
a lot behind the scenes no one knows about, and I think it’s because a
lot of companies like to let their products speak for themselves, mostly
through the budtenders. If they’ve tried a product, they won’t hold
back on what they think of it, bad or good. The industry needs
individuals with such candor. Who else can tell us that we, the vendors,
are doing badly? Who else do the customers voice their complaints to?
For suffering that indignity, we at least owe it to the budtenders, as
intermediaries, to listen.
The industry was scrambling
When
cannabis went from strictly medical and recreational, things went a
little mad for everyone involved. Suppliers scrambled to meet with
demands that no one was really prepared for. (Certainly not when the
reality of that situation is screaming their head off about product
availability at some poor budtender who only wants to get through the
day like everyone else.)
It was a frantic scramble
to grow, purchase or process as much cannabis as possible, then slam it
on the dispensary shelves. The industry staggered along as best it
could, hampered by a software unable to handle the volume, and strict
regulations mandated by the state set to take effect a few short months
after legalization. I came in at the tail end of this, and, at times, it
was hell on earth. The transition from the black market to the free
market is a balance between what works from both.
There
is, of course, an upside to the endless paperwork and computer
data-entry. It creates jobs. The cannabis industry is growing like ...
well, like cannabis itself, sending up shoots in the most unlikely
places.
Which is lucky for this budding young
industry. Hydroponic shops provide cultivation facilities with soil,
nutrients, lights and even new growers. Medical delivery companies,
already certified and well-versed with transport of other Schedule 1
drugs, expanded and dominated in cannabis delivery. Even local alcohol
distributors, once they had finished the proper paperwork, moved into
delivering cannabis.
Smoke shops have expanded,
too, and now showcase extensive glass collections and CBD products.
There are even laboratory facilities that are devoted exclusively to the
testing of cannabis products, from edibles to oil, and I marvel that
there is enough business for not one, but two in our city.
But
it is not all sunshine and roses in the cannabis industry, that much is
true. Even once the supply was more or less adequate to the demand,
there were still things to sort out, and exacting regulations under
which to sort them. We all had to get on the same page.
Held to a higher standard
Sometimes
I wonder if the strictness of the state is what deters applicants from
industry jobs. It certainly can feel somewhat superfluous at times.
(Everyone’s had that "did I do that right?" moment while using our
software, right?) There’s nothing more stomach-churning than a visit
from the state, even if you’re confident in your team and your facility.
Yes,
there are heavy regulations placed upon our industry, and we are held
to a higher standard of transparency than some of us are accustomed to.
It sucks being on camera eight hours a day, it sucks worrying about who
is coming into your facility every day, and it sucks watching profit
margins shaved thinner by taxes.
Its weird to
admit, but I am sure that all of these hardships are part of the process
to completely legitimize the cannabis industry. We must be able to
demonstrate, in every area, that we are capable of handling of a
Schedule 1 drug that is still illegal at the federal level. The state,
through the industry, must prove that cannabis is a feasible way to make
money in order to be allowed to proceed.
The best
part is that, as an industry, we have been able to rise to the occasion
most admirably. There are many wonderful people working hard from
cultivation to dispensaries and beyond. We have won the first fight with
recreational legalization, and now it is our duty to demonstrate that
we, as a state, not just an industry, can be a positive influence on
everyone in a community. Besides, the taxes we pay on cannabis goes to
important things, like road improvement.
Or at least, that’s what I think about while sitting in traffic, mildly shocked that I am not angry, but excited to get to work.
A.T. LaMorte works in the Nevada cannabis industry.
Aucun commentaire