As the legal cannabis industry grows, so do the regulatory agencies and government bureaucracies tasked with overseeing it. Someone has to make sure legal weed companies are doing things by the book. And that means jobs. It’s not only the cannabis industry that’s hiring. State agencies are creating new positions of their own, especially those preparing to legalize recreational use. And that’s why Massachusetts, where pot shops will finally open in July 2018, is searching for a cannabis inspector.
Massachusetts’ Rocky Road To Legal Weed
In November 2016, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot measure legalizing recreational cannabis use for adults 21 and over. In doing so, they joined three other states that legalized recreational weed in the same election.
But in an unusual move, Massachusetts lawmakers delayed implementing the law for over a year. Lawmakers said putting the process on hold was necessary to iron out all the details of the law.
Critics, however, suggested that conservative politicians were stalling as they looked for ways to hamper access to legal recreational marijuana.
Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the pro-legalization campaign which backed the ballot measure last fall, described the situation as “the worst example of Massachusetts lawmaking.”
“In no other state have we seen a delay like this,” Borghesani said.
All told, the road to legal weed in Massachusetts has been a rocky one, burdened by puritanical politicians personally opposed to legal weed.
Massachusetts Is Hiring A Cannabis Inspector
Despite the setbacks and delays, legal weed in Massachusetts in an inevitability.
The question now is exactly how efficiently the state can staff the regulatory agencies charged with overseeing cannabis businesses.
But the cannabis inspector that Massachusetts is seeking won’t just oversee cannabis production for the recreational and medical markets, the inspector will also be in charge of enforcing regulations for the state’s burgeoning hemp industry.
Voters in Massachusetts didn’t just legalize the adult use of cannabis last November. They also voted to legalize industrial hemp.
Morgan Paxhia, who co-founded and manages a hedge fund that invests in cannabis and hemp-related companies, said that hemp could become 10 times the size of the legal cannabis industry.
So Massachusetts’ cannabis inspector is certainly going to have his or her work cut out for them.
Hence the laundry list of qualifications for the job: a Bachelors’ Degree in Biology, Chemistry, Plant Pathology, or related fields; experience with cannabis; experience with enforcing rules and regulations; familiarity with inspection methods and techniques, and so on.
The Massachusetts cannabis inspector will also help the state craft new regulations and revise existing policy in light of new developments in the industry.
As of today, the job description is posted on the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources’ job portal as “Agricultural Inspector.”
The salary for the position ranges from $42,391 to $57, 762 yearly, depending on qualifications and prior experience.
The state will give priority to the applicants who submit their job materials within the first 14 days of the listing, which went live on November 3.
So, if you live in Massachusetts and feel like cannabis inspector is the job for you, you have until November 17 to be one of the first applicants considered. Good luck!
