Aspiring budtenders seek training to run medical marijuana dispensaries
March 29, 2015
A thick line of people formed inside a DoubleTree hotel Saturday afternoon, all of them waiting to learn if they had earned the distinction of certified budtender, one of many titles for a person who works behind the counter at a medicinal marijuana dispensary.
Hemp Staff, a Florida-based company that aims to educate, certify and assist job seekers in the medical marijuana industry, hosted two sold-out budtender training and certification sessions Saturday morning and afternoon at the hotel in Rosemont.
Though marijuana is still illegal under federal law, a state pilot program that took effect last year has allowed for up to 21 cultivation centers and 60dispensaries to grow and sell medicinal marijuana in Illinois.
John Reininger, a Chicago resident who attended the Hemp Staff morning session, said he hopes to enter the burgeoning field as a budtender. An employee in an oncology department of a hospital, Reininger said his ultimate goal is to be able to give patients an alternative to what he sees every day at work by offering them a "more natural drug."
Reininger is certainly not the only potential job seeker in the budding field.
"There's a ton of interest," said Rosie Yagielo, vice president of Hemp Staff. Her company's goal, she said, is to give everyone with an interest in the field a "fighting chance to get into a new industry."
At the end of each 31/2-hour Hemp Staff session, students are required to take a 20-question test and pass with at least 75 percent to receive the company's budtender certification, said Rosie's husband, James Yagielo, CEO and founder of Hemp Staff, in an email.
The aim of these sessions, Rosie Yagielo said, is to make participants "product specialists" and "interview ready" for a budtending position at a dispensary.
But some employers in the industry are looking for more than what companies like Hemp Staff have to offer.
Joseph Friedman, who received a license from the state to open a dispensary in Lake County, said he wants to create a pharmacy model for the dispensary business in Illinois.
"We'll only employ people that have pharmacist-in-charge experience, so someone who has run a pharmacy," he said.
Friedman, a pharmacist himself, said he expects to hire five full-time employees when he opens for business later this year. Employees counseling patients on what particular marijuana strain would be best for them must be either a registered pharmacist or pharmacy technician, he said. Eventually, Friedman said he'd also like to have pharmacy students in their third or fourth year of school rotating in and out of the dispensary.
Though Hemp Staff doesn't require students to have pharmaceutical or medical experience to participate in their training sessions, Yagielo said many of them, like Reininger, have experience in the medical field.
Two school nurses from LaSalle County, who attended Saturday's class, said they agree that this kind of work is best suited for people with experience in medicine.
"We think (medical marijuana) is a great concept," said a nurse who declined to be named. "Even as nurses we approach medicine holistically."
Hemp Staff advises its students not to discuss any prior illegal experience they may have using, selling or growing the drug.
"I don't care if you grew 25 plants in your basement," Yagielo said. "It means nothing to this current situation."
Illinois law also prohibits any medical marijuana business owners, employees or patients from participating in the industry if they have a felony conviction for a violent or drug-related offense.
In general, it's a tricky process for passionate advocates of marijuana who want to legitimize their knowledge and prior illicit experience, said Chris Walsh, managing editor of Marijuana Business Media.
"You'll find a lot of people won't be able to make the jump from knowing a lot about marijuana in their personal lives to making a career out of it," Walsh said.
But, he said, for the right people, the medical marijuana industry offers viable long-term career opportunities.
For instance, Cresco Labs LLC, which was awarded three licenses for grow centers in Illinois, said construction of each warehouse would generate 150 to 175 jobs, and operating the facilities would create about 40 permanent jobs.
But unlike other states with medical marijuana laws on the books, Illinois' is a pilot program and therefore not guaranteed to continue.
When asked about the issue, Friedman said it's up to dispensary owners to prove to Illinois legislators that medical marijuana is beneficial for both the patients they serve and the state's pocketbook.
If medicinal marijuana businesses are run well and according to state regulations, the controversy surrounding them often evaporates quickly, Walsh said.
"What you find with these businesses is that they are like any other businesses," he said. "They start operating and people forget about them.
They work their way into the fabric of the community."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-illinois-medical-marijuana-jobs-met-20150329-story.html
its all goo oood!!
