Workers laid off during the pandemic or just sick of their customers are flocking to this growth industry.
Take note, those who would seek to revitalise an economy in the dumps thanks to covid.
The US cannabis industry is riding a pandemic, ahem, high, thank you The Washington Post.
Unemployed hospitality workers flocked to work in dispensaries and cultivation facilities in 2020, beefing up the industry by 80,000 jobs. The sector has this year grown by a further third, and now employs an estimated 321,000 Americans – twice as many as there are dentists, according to a Leafly Jobs Report.
Despite being illegal federally, cannabis is medically legal in 36 states and recreationally legal in 18.
A large cross-sectional study of survey data just published in JAMA Network Open found that since the wave of state legalisations, there was no change in consumption among teenagers, or among Black adults. Use had become more prevalent among white, Hispanic and other adults but frequent use and use disorders were not.
The employment boom in the cannabis industry has led to large employers such as Amazon having to drop their drug testing requirements to attract employees.
But as well as that booming-new-industry excitement, the sector appears to offer workers a certain … chill … that they were missing in their previous lives.
Is this because the customers are more relaxed, or because staff enjoy an allowance similar to the old CUB workers’ three schooners a day?
One former Walgreens pharmacist of 15 years told the Post: “I am so much happier. For the first time in years, I’m not miserable when I come home from work.”
Another new “budtender” said: “Management is a lot more human. If I make a mistake and I apologise, the general vibe is, ‘It’s okay, we all make mistakes. Let’s fix this together.’ I’ve never had that before.”
If you get a buzz from a story, tell felicity@medicalrepublic.com.au.
