Cannabis Jobs

How to Make a Living and Have a Career in the World of Legalized Marijuana

Andrew Ward

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781510749528
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

"Andrew Ward spills the beans on how to obtain a job or full-blown career in the cannabis industry. Brooklyn-based freelance cannabis writer Ward should know, as he has covered the industry for over a decade for Benzinga and Merry Jane, among other media outlets." — Forbes
As of 2019, eleven states (and Washington, DC) have legalized recreational marijuana use with another twenty-two having legalized medical marijuana, and those numbers will only continue to rise. Cannabis career opportunities are beginning to take off across the country and beyond. In fact, Forbes noted the industry is projected to create more jobs than manufacturing by 2020.With the rise in legalization, virtually any job in the American market can be replicated in the cannabis industry. From working in a dispensary to social media, IT to HR, marketing to quality assurance, millions of future professionals are looking at cannabis as a future career path. Andrew Ward, who has been covering the growing cannabis industry for over a decade, shares the vast stretch of potential careers. In addition to job opportunities, Ward supplies career growth, salaries, and first-hand knowledge from professionals who have made a career in the field. But as with any industry, there are pros and cons. While the market is expanding, every profession has growing pains, and Ward explains them in detail. In addition to potential jobs, Ward explores other options, such as freelancing and starting your own business. For those either looking to find a new career or preparing to join the workforce, Cannabis Jobs offers the most in-depth information available.

1

Medical

Numerous sectors in the cannabis industry provide job seekers with multiple careers and pathways to finding a profession in the space. That is not the case when it comes to the medical sector. While it isn’t just relegated to being a physician, the field is narrower than others. Much of the market is comprised of doctors who see patients and qualify them for cannabis ID cards. In this role, doctors can work part-time or make it a full-time feature of their work.

For many years, this meant seeing patients in an office. This left medical professionals able to only serve patients who could get access to their offices. Now, advancements in technology allow practitioners and patients to connect much easier. In several states, prospective patients can now meet with a physician online. Commonly known as telemedicine, practitioners continue to evaluate patients as they normally would, except now done through a third-party. Doctors become affiliated with the company and see patients through the third-party company’s online portal. In most cases, the pay seems to vary between $60 and $200 per hour.

Ryan Lepore, Business Operations Manager at PrestoDoctor, a telemedicine service in New York, California, and Nevada, explained to me the benefits of telemedicine. These benefits extend to patients and the sector at large. “Telemedicine has been a natural ally for medicinal cannabis patients, allowing many to privately address their health concerns in an already stigmatized patient experience. Within their own convenience, patients are afforded access to a cannabis-specific physician regardless of a clinic’s proximity, and provided lower expenditures for a medical experience that currently does not allow for insurance co-pays. Many online telemedicine clinics have been able to service larger population demands in select states, conjointly, providing reliable entry points for medical data and academic research through already digitized patient files.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Harry McIlroy noted the range can vary a bit more, between $80 and $500. “Some practitioners also charge more for ongoing care. This can range from $600–$1000 per year for routine follow-up to make corrections.”

While in-person and telemedicine doctors make up the majority of the sector, they are not the only career path in the medical field. In some cases, medical professionals can serve as liaisons for companies and research facilities. Often, a liaison’s central role is to be an educator, discussing the plant and the human body among other topics. Additionally, a person in this role may be the face of a brand or institution while also meeting with patients for consultations. In some other cases, they may build relationships with local physicians to establish a peer-to-peer network in the community.

Support roles are vital to the work. For example, a patient care coordinator may be tasked with assisting patients and families to determine treatment courses while helping doctors maintain a functioning practice. This sort of work will earn a more modest salary of around $15 per hour.

Experienced medical professionals can also enter the cannabis space—and not just in their office. The insights and wisdom medical professionals possess is needed in the boardroom making executive decisions. Cannabis producers and distributors often bring on medical professionals to oversee areas such as medical research and development. Depending on the specialty of the doctor, their focus could delve into areas including pain management, strain specificity, and much more.

Niche sectors of the market are opening as physicians and patients alike allow medical cannabis into the equation. One such area is physical therapy. In recent years, the community has made efforts to educate physical therapists and physical therapist assistants about the pros and cons of cannabis use and PT.

In a 2018 article for the American Physical Therapy Association’s website, Johanns Gammel, PTA, explained how medical marijuana helped ease a patient’s multiple sclerosis (MS) pains and improve their PT. After using marijuana, “sometimes, the spasms, twitches, and pain subside within one minute,” Gammel says. “This allows me to stretch his legs, which are tight from the disease and from his being in a wheelchair. The effects of MMJ help him get the proper manual therapy in accordance with the PT’s plan of care in order to be able to move.”

The adverse effects of cannabis on some created another niche need in the market: rehabilitation. While some refute the notion marijuana is indeed addictive to some though most estimate that this number is less than 10 percent of users. Though much of the market won’t experience this outcome, for those that do, rehab could be the best thing to get them back on track. Those specializing in this field may become familiar in cognitive-behavioral, contingency management, and/or motivational enhancement therapy to help treat a patient.

CBD is fast becoming its own field in cannabis, with a particular interest in its possible medical applications. Dr. Hervé Damas is the founder of Grassroots Medicine and Wellness in Florida. While he didn’t say CBD would become its own field of medical services, he does see its potential. “I believe the CBD segment will be the largest segment in the cannabis industry in ten years,” Dr. Damas predicted. In addition to CBD, Dr. Damas sees prescribing physicians remaining as an in-demand role. As will treatment experts.

Me Fuimaono-Poe, a Family Nurse Practitioner at The Malie Cannabis Clinic in Hawaii, hopes to see a demand for additional research in the years to come. “Berkeley just announced a cannabis research program and we are so excited,” said Fuimaono-Poe. While thrilled over the news, she noted other areas more specific to the sector that are more in demand. She mentioned the need for cannabis clinicians who are willing to do certifications and provide dosing guidelines. “Having people get their advice from a twenty-year-old budtender is not going to cut it anymore.”

Unlike other sectors, the medical field rightly has some hard and fast rules that one must adhere to. Namely, they need the proper education and certification to even attempt entering the sector. In a 2018 article for the online social networking service for medical professionals Doximity, Dr. Rachna Patel, explained how she became a cannabis doctor. She chose the field because she wanted to make a meaningful change in people’s lives. Working in a traditional practice led her to a realization. “While going through training in Emergency Medicine, I was handing out prescriptions, on the one hand. But, on the other hand, I found myself treating the side effects of these prescription medications. I encountered patients that had become addicted to these prescription medications. And, I was in the unfortunate position of resuscitating patients that had overdosed on these prescription medications.”

For the next year, Dr. Patel studied marijuana and began her journey to becoming a medical cannabis expert. She told Doximity how she took her first steps in the field and how it impacted her. “After spending a year digging through the research on medical marijuana, I saw its potential as a much safer alternative to prescription medications. In fact, when I signed up to work at a medical marijuana clinic, I was taken aback by the clinical outcomes I saw. Many of my patients, with the use of medical marijuana, were able to eliminate the use of their prescription medications altogether!”

In addition to reading up on the subject and working in the field. Dr. McIlroy suggested joining groups like the Society of Cannabis Clinicians and watching webinars to immerse yourself further in the sector and its developments.

Meanwhile, Bryan Passman, founder of cannabis industry search firms The GIGG (for staffing) and Hunter + Esquire, explained the difficulty of getting into the sector. “At this point, you have to fight and claw your way into it. We work with physicians who have carved out time in their very busy schedules and money out of their personal budgets to hire copyrights to publish papers that will attract industry attention, as well as to do all that they can to win speaking engagements at relevant industry trade shows.” He went on to note the importance of passion. “You don’t have to be a cannabis doctor or nurse, but you do have to be passionate about your pursuit of entry and be willing to pay a price up front to separate yourself from the pack of candidates, but that really goes for all executive roles.”

Due to a lack of federal regulations, each state has its own set of rules to becoming a registered cannabis physician. Therefore, there is no uniform system one can follow to becoming a doctor in the marijuana space. Instead, they must check the rules and regulations in their state and adhere to them as such. Some states will be more complicated than others.

Aside from finding a career, job seekers should know about some of the most discussed topics in the space. A good deal of discussion is likely to center on local and state regulations. This is especially true in states where its medical markets are just coming to fruition.

From there, many topics stretch beyond state borders and impact the sector as a whole. One of the more looming and concerning issues is the continued information gap between patients and physicians. In far too many instances, patients know more about cannabis than their medical professional. This isn’t a “vaccinations cause autism” sort of blind distrust in physicians, either. In this case, many physicians are reluctant to learn about, much less recommend, cannabis to their patients.

In short, the reluctance is due to two justified, yet frustrating reasons. First, medical cannabis does not fit the mold of traditional, modern remedies and requires much more variation than other medication. Second, many doctors do not want to bother with cannabis due to the often limited clinical studies and its legal status. The latter holding up progress on the former in the United States.

Influential medical groups continue to dissuade physicians from participating as well. In a November 2018 article, Tony Leys of the Des Moines Register noted how the Iowa Medical Society considers the state’s medical cannabis program an “unsustainable and dangerous public policy.” Leys reported that the group has even told doctors that they could experience legal and insurance issues if they participate in the marketplace.

As such, a growing number of patients want to explore marijuana for medical treatment, but must discuss the matter with a professional who has no understanding of the plant.

In addition to an education gap affecting many, two significant groups of the American public, seniors and veterans, feel left out of the medical market. This includes a late winter 2019 decision by the Missouri Veterans Commission that ruled its residents in numerous nursing homes could not take part in the state’s medical cannabis program.

Meanwhile, making matters more troubling and frustrating, other states must contend with an influx of dubious offices and practitioners who could upend the market. Debbie Knight told the Tampa Bay Times that when she went into the offices of her closest and most affordable cannabis doctor, Fort Lauderdale 420 Marijuana Doctors, she had a terrible experience. She reported a foul smell, discarded fast food bags in the exam room, and misleading prices that differed from what she read online. After her visit, Knight never received her license and could not reach the office further, as its phone was disconnected two weeks later. In addition to dodgy doctors and groups causing fear and information gaps, the market is shifting away from its roots, explained Fuimaono-Poe. “Basically, the change from this is medicine to this is alcohol-like, ‘Let’s tax the fuck out of [cannabis] and get rich’ model has created a marketplace that isn’t geared towards compassionate use.” She elaborated, “The change from high-quality cannabis to crappy cannabis grown in football-sized domes under lights has impacted our markets in ways we don’t fully understand yet.”

Despite the series of pressing concerns, the industry does offer scores of positives as well. While Dr. Damas did note regulatory ambiguity and the stigma attached to cannabis, he saw immense good from the sector. He stated the grassroots movement of the community and its “well-intentioned people.”

Meanwhile, Fuimaono-Poe noted a decrease in stigma over her years in the business. Though the influx of misinformed newcomers does not sit well with the industry veteran. “The story I am most sick of hearing is, ‘I didn’t even use cannabis until two years ago. Then, I tried it, and now I own two dispensaries and a grow . . . ’”

When finding ideal applicants, Dr. Damas looks outside the box. A former NFL player for the Buffalo Bills, Dr. Damas values experience that goes beyond the plant. “[I value] experience outside of the cannabis industry, self-discipline, an independent worker.” Meanwhile, Fuimaono-Poe singles out flexibility as an ideal trait. “This is a rapidly growing and evolving market. If you don’t have resiliency, you will hate it here.”

When looking back at their own experiences, both have had enjoyable experiences overall. “I give people hope and I provide answers to questions that were going unanswered,” remarked Dr. Damas. He is particularly hopeful of the gains he could provide to his specialty. “With my research, I’m doing work that will hopefully have a permanent impression on the landscape of sports and medicine.”

For Fuimaono-Poe, she considers her cannabis experience a beautiful time. “I have come to learn that this is not a simple plant. It’s more of a complex entity,” she noted, adding, “I have seen it completely change people’s lives.” She briefly elaborated on some of her rewarding work. “I have aided several patients in successfully titrating off all opiates and benzodiazepines using cannabis. Cannabis provides profound healing on really deep levels.”

2

Tech

The technology boom has steadily grown over the past several decades. That is true for cannabis as well. While hamstrung by the law, the illicit market continued to innovate cannabis products for years while skirting the law. For example, with extraction technology, first came dangerous home extraction methods using butane and tubes during the illicit market days. Then came hair straighteners, a process that eliminated solvents but provided little consistency to product yields. Now, with state-of-the-art facilities, these extraction methods and others provide consumers with legal products they can pick up in plenty of states.

This technology has spilled into the mainstream as more regions pass cannabis legislation. With regulated markets, cannabis technology has flourished in short order. Yet, still, scores of items have not yet hit the market—meaning there are still ample opportunities for entrepreneurs and job seekers alike in the space.

With demand already there, job seekers do not need to wait to get involved in the sector. That said, the issues surrounding some states hinder labs and future opportunities.

David Hua is the founder and CEO of Meadow, a cannabis dispensary point-of-sale software company. Hua explained how the cannabis industry as a whole has been underserved with technology. Due to prohibition, most cannabis ventures couldn’t have access to world-class technology solutions. “The result was a patchwork of various pieces of technology to help get their jobs done,” Hua explained.

Lulu Tsui, tech entrepreneur and co-founder of REVEL, expanded on the sector’s shortcomings in today’s cannabis market. “The first required seed-to-sale tracking software offerings were legacy systems used in other industries and then hacked together to try and serve the cannabis. My background is in user experience, so I think that the majority of software tools for the cannabis industry is still being designed in an antiquated way—most are still designing around the system instead of designing for the user. Just ask any operator how they feel about the software in their facility.”

Now, as legalization expands, Hua notes that unprecedented growth is currently underway in the industry, and is fueled by capital. As such, numerous sectors are reaping the benefits.

When asked about booming cannabis tech...