Huge turnout at Denver pot job fair
More than 1,200 people seek to fill about 150 jobs in Colo. marijuana industry.
Looking for a job as a bud-tender? Get in line.
More than 1,200 people — nearly half from out of state — flocked this week to what was billed as the first marijuana-industry job fair, said organizers of the Denver event.
Turnout was nearly double what Todd Mitchem, the job fair’s organizer, had expected.
“This job fair demonstrated the movement around cannabis and the need to accept people who consume cannabis as part of a vital workforce,” he said in a statement.
Mitchem, chief revenue officer for O.pen Vape, a company that sells cannabis products, said that 40% of those who attended Thursday were from outside Colorado. Some came from as far away as Maine, Vermont, Puerto Rico and California.
More than a dozen companies were looking for candidates to fill jobs as budtenders (those who work be- hind the counter and dispense pot), marketers, marijuana trimmers and even accountants. Employers were looking to fill about 150 jobs, Mitchem said.
The state is experiencing an economic boom after recreational use of marijuana became legal at the start of the year. Companies have rushed to meet growing demand.
In January, the first month that marijuana’s recreational use was legal, the state reported sales of about $14 million. That translated into about $2 million in taxes for state coffers.
Jerad White of New Mexico was among those who wanted to partake in the expansion.
White, who drove 11 hours to attend the job fair, told CBS News that he would take just about any job. “Whatever they want to throw at me, then it’d get my foot in the door,” he said.
So far, 20 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to allow the legal sale of marijuana for medicinal use. Colorado and Washington state have legalized pot’s use for recreational purposes.