
Why Legal Cannabis Employers are Passing on Stoner Applicants
Think your passion for getting high makes you the ideal candidate to work at a dispensary? Guess again.
Canada is rushing to build as many private sector weed dispensaries as they can before the October 17 deadline. This means we are about to see a hiring boom of sorts, as there is literally thousands of “budtender” jobs to fill.
But, despite what your most frequently-high-friend tells you, you’re going to need more than a serious recreational habit and a knowledge of a few different strains to work there.
Here’s why even in the cannabis sector, stoners need not apply.
Lessons From the South
Again, the stores will be privately run in Canada. So each owner is certainly free to have their own hiring criteria and preferences, with no real specific regulations in place about who they can and cannot hire… yet.
What they can do, is take a look at what has happened in states where legalization has already happened.
Let’s start in Florida, where the medical marijuana market already has the demand of about 147,000 patients. That’s a lot of prescriptions to fill and a lot of bodies needed to do it.
However, the state does have a law that says medical marijuana operators have to be felony-free. That drains the hiring pool considerably. In fact, the Orlando Sentinel recently reported that only about 10% of applicants for cannabis jobs are employable.
There are also several anecdotes about hapless job applicants bragging about their marijuana-related arrests in their job interviews.
So don’t do that. It may seem like a fine line between marijuana enthusiast and convicted felon, but that’s a hard line in a lot of employers minds.
You’re High…ered
A lot of employers also have to wear the hat of cannabis advocate and change agent. They’re not just building a business, they’re trying to build a new image for the entire cannabis industry. They’re trying to tear down the old stereotypes associated with the slacker pothead… and their employees being demonstrably high at work is not gonna help anything.
Taking a look at what we can learn from down south, researchers at Colorado State University discovered that 63% of Colorado’s cannabis employees showed up high within the last 30 days. At the same time, 45% said they get stoned on company time.
Again, this may not be the image cannabis entrepreneurs want to portray when trying to establish legitimacy.
Bud Bosses
Also, try to keep in mind that the average cannabis business owner is likely somebody who smoked weed in their youth into adulthood. They were able to keep a healthy and balanced marijuana habit, while getting an education, holding down jobs, paying their taxes, and putting themselves in a position where they can run this business.
They probably take pride in the fact that they are an example of what a cannabis enthusiast can accomplish, as opposed to the vapid stereotype.
Any of their employees giving any evidence of personifying those old archetypes of being dim or unreliable is worse than being offensive to them. It’s damaging to their brand.
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