Legal cannabis created thousands of jobs in Nevada — and those jobs need people to fill them.
According to RCJ Economics in Las Vegas, there are more than 8,000 cannabis jobs in the state, and that number is expected to grow.
Soon, the College of Southern Nevada will offer three courses to help students break into the industry.
Jason Sturtsman will be teaching one of those courses. He'll be teaching a one-day course on dispensary customer service, which is known as being a budtender.
“Cannabis is very different than an alcohol experience," Sturtsman explained. "There are so many different nuances to cannabis whether you’re consuming it in an edible, whether you’re consuming it in a vape pen, whether you’re consuming it in flower. All the many devices out there too.”
Sturtsman said a budtender needs to know the different types of cannabis and how they impact the body. They also need to understand how to give excellent customer service so the person who is purchasing the product gets what he or she is looking for.
Sturtsman said experience with cannabis is a must when looking for a job as a budtender, but getting a job is extremely competitive.
“For you to stand out, you have to get educated," he said. "You have to network. Networking and education the two number one ways when you ask people how they got a job in the cannabis industry."
Beyond budtending, Sturtsman said there are plenty of other jobs in the cannabis industry from working in labs that test the products to the distribution of the product to marketing the dispensaries.
“This is the green rush," he said. "There is a huge opportunity in the cannabis industry because there’s not a lot of experience that people have had in the past because it’s been illegal.”
Sturtsman predicts when consumption lounges are eventually allowed in Nevada there will be even more jobs there as well.
“There is so much opportunity in the cannabis industry — it’s incredible,” he said.
Besides the dispensary customer service course, CSN will also be offering a Cannabis 101 course covering the science of the plant and its history. There will also be a Green Jobs business course to cover some of the issues unique to the industry.
Jason Sturtsman, instructor, Dispensary Customer Service