- Ryan Alexander-Tanner
AN INTERESTING THING about living in a state with legal pot is the frequency with which I’m asked if I know of any job openings. So do I? Yes and no.
We’re only a few months along on the rollout of Oregon’s adult-use (AKA recreational pot) laws. We won’t have recreational dispensaries until (best guess) sometime in the third or fourth quarter of 2016. That’s when anyone 21 and older can buy concentrates, edibles, topicals, vape pens, pain patches, sodas, and tinctures. As of now, you’re still limited to a quarter-ounce of flowers, seeds, and clones.
We don’t yet have the infrastructure in place to support sales of those non-flower products, either. Sure, they’re available to Oregon Medical Marijuana Program cardholders, but that’s just under 77,000 people statewide. The Oregon Health Authority recently released rules for growing cannabis for the recreational market, but permits to do so won’t be issued until 2016. So while there’s a mad scramble for land and facilities, no one’s yet growing at the rate that will eventually be allowed.
There is, however, seasonal work. The Southern Oregon harvest is in, and our unseasonably warm weather gave the eco farmers bumper crops. That sun-grown goodness needs to be trimmed, creating a tribe of seasonal workers often referred to as “trimmigrants,” who travel up and down I-5 trimming for a patchwork of operations.
