You’ve got friends in high places!

Though I have offered them commentary on many many topics already, I recently wrote my very first piece for VICE’s “lady channel,” Broadly.

Here’s an excerpt from “Friends in High Places: The Women Helping You Land a Job in the Weed Industry” (here, 6/7/16).

Whether people like it or not, legal cannabis — both medical and recreational — is unarguably on the rise. Colorado is teeming with dispensaries, California is slated to vote in recreational marijuana this fall, and Ohio is about to become the 25th state to legalize medicinal weed. As cannabis permeates US culture and formalizes as an industry, sticking points — both commonplace (How do I find reliable, qualified employees?) and unusual (How do I find reliable qualified employees to work in this highly regulated, often stigmatized industry?) — begin to reveal themselves.

According to Karson Humiston, “The biggest challenge is probably finding reliable people for the lower-end positions: the budtenders and other people who are working in the actual dispensaries.” A “budtender” is like a cannabis barista-slash-sommelier. They work in dispensaries, answering marijuana-specific questions and ringing up purchases in accordance with state law… (more)

I was really excited to work on this story and learned so much in the process. The different components of HR are marvelously dynamic (who knew?!), and the nuts-and-bolts world of workplace compliance shapes organizational environments. HR is basically responsible for the state of your workplace, a place where most people spend about a third of their lives, at least — I had no idea!

Thanks to Karson Humiston, Chris Holmquist, and Lori Strubbe — who inspired this story in the first place — for contributing their insights and teaching me and Broadly so much! Via their work, you too can have friends in high places.

(pictured: working with weed, via Broadly/VICE)

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