{"id":63357,"date":"2023-04-03T05:10:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T13:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/04\/03\/missouris-marijuana-legalization-has-already-created-thousands-of-new-jobs-state-data-shows\/"},"modified":"2023-04-03T05:45:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T13:45:51","slug":"missouris-marijuana-legalization-has-already-created-thousands-of-new-jobs-state-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/04\/03\/missouris-marijuana-legalization-has-already-created-thousands-of-new-jobs-state-data-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri\u2019s Marijuana Legalization Has Already Created Thousands Of New Jobs, State Data Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s enormous job growth, and it really happens quite quickly. So we are seeing customers and partners in Missouri aggressively and actively hiring.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marcus Kerr was running his own food truck in California in 2018, when he parked by a marijuana dispensary one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just ended up meeting the owner of this company, and they had my food,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said, \u2018Hey, can you infuse this?\u2019 Then I started working for the big guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr began creating edible recipes in a California lab, and he\u2019s been in the cannabis industry since. Now he\u2019s excited to be part of Missouri\u2019s new journey into the recreational marijuana space.<\/p>\n

Kerr moved to St. Louis about a month ago and joined the Luxury Leaf Cannabis Dispensary team as a specialist. Beyond a career opportunity, cannabis science is something passed down within his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from Jamaica, where it\u2019s growing on the side of the mountains, so it\u2019s in my DNA,\u201d he laughed. \u201cLiterally it is, like in my chromosomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr is among thousands of people who have landed cannabis jobs in Missouri since voters approved recreational marijuana use through a constitutional amendment, which appeared on the November ballot as Amendment 3.<\/p>\n

The job surge is best seen through the number of licenses the state approves for new employees each month\u2014it\u2019s quadrupled since November.<\/p>\n

Anyone who wants to work in the industry\u2014including owners\u2014must get an \u201cagent ID badge\u201d through the state, which includes a background check.<\/p>\n

In November, the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), which is charged with overseeing the state\u2019s cannabis program, approved 264 badges. It doubled in December to more than 500 badges\u2014and then doubled again to more than 1,100 in both January and February.<\/p>\n

Christy Essex runs the largest Missouri-based cannabis staffing company, Se7en Staffing & Employment Solutions, and foresees the job growth continuing to shoot up throughout this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust across the board, you\u2019re seeing an increase in need,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the manufacturing and the laboratories even, we\u2019ve actually been staffing for all the entities right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dispensaries statewide are struggling to keep the shelves stocked, Essex said, so some companies are also hiring temporary \u201cproject\u201d employees to get through the \u201cshort-term crunches.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to DHSS, at the end of February, there were 12,970 individuals with marijuana agent IDs, up from 10,100 at the end of November.<\/p>\n

Missouri is seen as the \u201cdarling\u201d of the cannabis industry after reaching $102.9 million in sales\u2014$72 million for recreational marijuana\u2014in the first month, said Sloane Barbour, the CEO of engin, a technology platform that helps cannabis companies hire hourly workers.<\/p>\n

And Missouri is on pace to become a billion-dollar market.<\/p>\n

\u201cBillion-dollar markets like Michigan, Illinois and Massachusetts employ anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000 workers in the cannabis industry,\u201d Barbour said. \u201cIt\u2019s enormous job growth, and it really happens quite quickly. So we are seeing customers and partners in Missouri aggressively and actively hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

One potential snag in getting those positions filled quickly is a bill making its way through the state legislature that would require fingerprinting as part of the background checks for all employees.<\/p>\n

The bill has already passed the state Senate and is expected to have an easy path in the House as well.<\/p>\n

Background checks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Essex has been in workforce development in Missouri since 2014. Around the same time, she began researching the benefits of medical use for one of her family members.<\/p>\n

When Illinois and Missouri began embracing medical marijuana, she saw an opportunity to combine her passion for workforce development and educating people about the benefits of cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd here I am,\u201d she said. \u201cSo my heart\u2019s all in it, all the way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essex helps train employees at all levels, so they know what to expect when entering the constantly-evolving industry, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be a chemist, but what\u2019s it\u2019s like to be a chemist in a cannabis laboratory?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her company spends a \u201ctremendous\u201d amount of time educating people about the background checks. Many people, especially minorities, she said, automatically assume if there is a background check that they won\u2019t qualify if they have a misdemeanor on their record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts a level of fear in individuals,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The constitution states that people with a \u201cdisqualifying felony\u201d can\u2019t work in the industry, but it doesn\u2019t specify what types of felony offenses. It exempts marijuana offenses that are eligible for expungement. It also says that if it\u2019s a nonviolent felony offense, employees are in the clear if it has been more than five years since the charge.<\/p>\n

For other felonies, \u201cmore than five years have passed since the person was released from parole or probation, and he or she has not been convicted of any subsequent felony criminal offenses,\u201d it states.<\/p>\n

According to DHSS, a lot of their review is subjective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is written into law is then applied to each individual record, so it is a case-by-case analysis and can\u2019t simply be determined by a checklist of potential offenses,\u201d said Lisa Cox, a spokeswoman for DHSS, in an email to The Independent.<\/p>\n

The recreational or adult-use of cannabis has been approved in Washington, D.C., and 21 states, and the medical use has been legalized in 39 states.<\/p>\n

Every state handles background checks differently. In California, only owners are required to go through fingerprint-based criminal background checks, not employees. But Arizona requires fingerprint-based background checks for all employees, board members, owners and volunteers.<\/p>\n

John Payne, founder and managing member of Amendment 2 Consultants, said lawmakers often refer to what\u2019s known as the \u201cCole Memo\u201d as the basis for how they go about this process.<\/p>\n

In 2013, then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued a memo to address the rise in states legalizing medical marijuana. Payne says it essentially was an agreement that the federal government was going to leave state marijuana programs alone, as long as they meet certain conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those conditions was basically preventing people from organized crime from getting into the marijuana business,\u201d Payne said. \u201cIt depends on what the background check is for, right? If it\u2019s for people that have that sort of background, that would be reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fingerprinting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since December 8, when Amendment 3 went into effect, DHSS stopped requiring fingerprinting for the ID badge applications of employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to attest to not committing disqualifying offenses,\u201d Essex said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re able to get people to work within a 48-hour time period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding in the fingerprinting process, she said, takes that up to 14 days to get an employee to work.<\/p>\n

Like California, Missouri\u2019s adult-use law through Amendment 3 only requires owners to go fingerprint-based background checks, according to DHSS.<\/p>\n

However, the 2018 constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana\u2014which was on the ballot as Amendment 2\u2014still requires all owners, employees and contractors to go through this process for medical marijuana, Cox said.<\/p>\n

A measure, sponsored by Republican Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville, would revert back to the original fingerprinting process before Amendment 3 went into effect. The language was added as an amendment to a bill regarding background checks for school employees, which will be heard in a House committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The measure has the support of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, which represents cannabis professionals and business owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill proposes the same level of background check requirements for all facility owners, employees and contractors regardless of the type of facility licensure,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

Essex said the challenge she sees is that there weren\u2019t enough vendors that take the fingerprints to keep pace with the employees for medical marijuana, particularly in the larger cities like Kansas City and St. Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully if they do implement the fingerprinting again,\u201d Essex said, \u201cthere\u2019ll be more providers in the state of Missouri that will be able to deal with a large quantity of candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columbia-based attorney Dan Viets, who helped write the language for Amendment 3, said he doesn\u2019t remember anyone intentionally removing the fingerprint requirements for employees from the recreational marijuana program.<\/p>\n

But he believes it should be left out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motivation, frankly, was to draft something that would meet the concerns that some voters might have about people with criminal history being involved in the industry,\u201d he said of the 2018 constitutional amendment. \u201cIf we had to do it over, we might not have required it for medical employees either.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a Senate floor debate, Sen. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, said the fingerprinting measure was \u201ca federal requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s putting us in line with federal regulations,\u201d she said, regarding the amendment on her background checks bill.<\/p>\n

She was likely referencing the Cole Memo, Payne said, because the federal government doesn\u2019t regulate marijuana at all.<\/p>\n

Barbour agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s $32 billion worth of commerce happening\u2026right now in the U.S. that is all technically federally illegal\u2014racketeering of the broadest scale,\u201d Barbour said. \u201cSo what that means is that state legislatures\u2026are trying to figure it out as they go. This is pretty uncharted territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Bipartisan Wisconsin Lawmakers Say Medical Marijuana Is Possible This Session, But It Will Need To Include Serious Limitations<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post Missouri\u2019s Marijuana Legalization Has Already Created Thousands Of New Jobs, State Data Shows<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Missouri\u2019s Marijuana Legalization Has Already Created Thousands Of New Jobs, State Data Shows<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s enormous job growth, and it really happens quite quickly. So we are seeing customers and partners in Missouri aggressively and actively hiring.\u201d By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent Marcus Kerr was running his own food truck in California in 2018, when he parked by a marijuana dispensary one day. \u201cIContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1335],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63358,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63357\/revisions\/63358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}