Unemployed Still? Cannabis Jobs Fair at Cow Palace This Weekend

And you wouldn't have to pay taxes!

​This being election season means it's also jobs season. Jobs are on the lips of every politician worth his or her soft money -- from Barack Obama's jobs plan to Mayor Ed Lee's own Wilsonesque 17-point jobs plan (in some ways eerily similar to the 17-point jobs plan offered in June by mayoral opponent City Attorney Dennis Herrera, but we digress).

Jobs are on the agenda this weekend at the Cow Palace, too, where a career fair dedicated to California's most lucrative cash crop will be held.

That's right: it's the first-ever medical marijuana jobs fair, organizers claim.
While the medical cannabis industry moves a reported $1.7 billion every year, other states have also been keen to tout legal green as an economy-saver: Before the state's Attorney General took a hard-line stance, Michigan medical marijuana activists were dubbing the industry "recession-proof."

This weekend's West Coast Cannabis Expo -- one of many "cannabis lifestyle events" seen throughout the Bay Area these days -- differs from previous medical cannabis events in this jobs-first approach. "West Coast Cannabis Expo's first ever cannabis job fair will help put Bay Area residents back to work," reads a press release from CannaJobs.com, the newly formed medical cannabis jobs board which is hosting the event. And why not? Readers of these virtual pages may recall that jobs in the medical marijuana industry, at least in San Francisco, pay well and are in high demand.

It's unclear exactly how many jobs are at stake, though at least 11 companies -- all members of trade association National Cannabis Industry Association, ranging from testing labs to dispensaries to garden shops and law firms -- are going to turn up. Attendees are being told to bring a resume and prepare for an on-the-spot interview. Jobs counselors will be on site for resume critiques and even an intake screening to help you find a suitable career path in the bud industry.

That there's ample money to be made in the marijuana trade is something even one's mother should know. However, it's possible to make a killing in cannabis without ever touching a bud and ergo breaking the law. Publicly traded General Cannabis, which owns and operates WeedMaps and other "cannabis technology" sites, for example, runs no risk of a DEA raid (the SEC, of course, is another matter). Never mind that the company's stock has lost half its value in the past year -- can your 401k boast much better? A job is a job, and the medical marijuana industry is still hiring.

The expo goes on from Friday to Sunday.

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