• Legalization will bring trillions of dollars, huge growing rooms and also a lot of work for cannabis lovers.

For decades, "Green Fever" has been a phenomenon seen exclusively in California's Emerald Triangle (the area that produces the largest amount of cannabis in the United States). Thousands of people came to small forest towns and joined the local underground hemp industry. Cannabis will be legalized in Canada this summer, and a wave of enthusiasm is shifting to the north, where up to 150,000 cannabis-related jobs should be created.

According to Deloitte, the value of the Canadian hemp industry is estimated to be about 22.6 trillion, and months before legalization (to take place on July 1) will be marked by hiring - from growers to cutters to technical experts.

Why legalize cannabis?

The Canadian cannabis industry has been a steady success since medical cannabis was legalized in 2001. However, after the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes in July, the cannabis industry should become the basis of the Canadian economy.

Companies are preparing for this transition by settling in small towns and quickly trying to transform them. OneLeaf Cannabis Corporation plans to build a 4,000-square-meter facility in the Saskatachewan region, specifically in the town of Sherwood, which has just over 1,000 inhabitants. It has to employ about 10% of the local population and has great growth potential.

There are also companies such as Aurora, which is one of Canada's largest licensed growers and where they employ everything from harvesters to university-educated researchers . Their Aurora Sky facility is set to cover an area of approximately 74,000 square meters and is scheduled to open in mid-2018.

Legal Hemp Industry

This is good news for the whole society and for everyone who wants to get into the hemp industry. When Cam Battley took on the role of CCO in 2016, the company had about 35 employees. There are currently around 500, and this number is expected to double in the next twelve months.

And that's just "the tip of the iceberg," says Cannabis At Work, founder and CEO. Since 2015, the company has managed to connect employees with approximately 350 cannabis companies across the country. By-products will be benefits for other industries that we haven't even thought about yet, "says McMahon.

The construction industry is an example of how another industry can benefit from the hemp boom. For example, in Ontario, it is trying to build new shopping complexes for Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp., which distributes cannabis and is controlled by the government. We have already experienced something similar in states where cannabis has become legal. For example, in Colorado, a large number of companies have emerged that focus only on the construction of growing complexes, McMahon continues.

McMahon also emphasizes that the cannabis industry represents a great opportunity to employ people who previously had legal cannabis problems. Growers very often look for people who have already worked with cannabis, because they usually know the most about cannabis.

"One thing Aurora did was to hire people with the best experience and the greatest passion for cannabis ," says Battley, "which basically means hiring people from medical cannabis dispensaries and the black market."

Education for employees in the hemp industry

In one area, however, the cannabis industry is still lagging a bit, in terms of training opportunities for those just starting out. McMahon has tried to fill this gap in the market by offering short-term online courses that provide comprehensive information on the cannabis industry, but there is still a need for additional educators to follow the path of Kwatlen Polytechnic University, which offers two-year programs cannabis.

Battley believes that before that happens, provincial authorities should encourage existing communities with cannabis experience to work together and learn from them.

"We have a unique mixed culture that brings together people in suits like me with people from the community," Battley continues. "One of the best things about my job in this sector is learning from these people."

Source: herb.co