Whether medically or recreationally, cannabis legalization has undoubtedly led to a mass migration of American citizens widely across the country. A good amount of those citizens, an almost unfair amount truthfully, have left their home states and ventured to states where cannabis is at least medically legal and becoming medical refugees in the process. It’s unfortunate, but the medical cannabis laws will remain a convoluted mess of confusing legislation until an action happens on the federal level.
However, another equally as popular reason that individuals have moved across America in the wake of cannabis legalization is for a chance to fill one of the estimated 211,000 employment opportunities created by either medical or recreational cannabis in 34 states. And given the industry’s broadness of duties and ancillary services, the types of jobs are vast and wildly different from one another. Plant cultivation, edible production, trimming, packaging, facility management, retail positions at dispensaries and the gauntlet of cannabis extraction varieties and not to mention employment at ancillary businesses that cater directly to the industry.
A Chicago native with a previous professional background in shipping logistics who spent more than enough time in Dallas to be considered a Dallasite before moving to Las Vegas is one such example of cannabis employment cross-country migration.
Moving to Dallas at 23 from The Windy City due to a transfer in departments at shipping and supply chain logistics services provider Aerostar Global Logistics, Mike Howard found the move to be fairly convenient as his older brother, older sister and twin sister all moved to the DFW within a period of two or three years.
The reasons why cannabis cultivation sparked the interest of Howard so brightly is partially due to his lifelong interest of agriculture and planting.
“I grew every type of plant that I could get my hands on. From tomatoes to venus fly traps to sunflowers and tomatoes and peppers wherever I lived, I have always had a passion for growing things and it developed. Ever since I tried cannabis, I wanted to grow it and I was fascinated by how it grows.” Howard recollected.
However in a far less dramatic version of Hank Schrader and Walter White, his mother worked for The Drug Enforcement Agency, a government agency with a spotty history that unsurprisingly doesn’t exactly share the same viewpoints toward cannabis that Snoop Dogg has. Because of that, he didn’t even touch cannabis until his early 20’s. Adding to the less dramatic factor is that unlike the mineral-loving DEA agent from Breaking Bad, his mom simply worked secretarial and administrative roles in an office location of the DEA yet held a negative viewpoint of cannabis regardless.
After living in Dallas since 2011, the now six-year Dallasite found himself growing a bit tired of traditional shipping logistics and wanted a new professional journey. Following Howard’s attendance to the Southwest Cannabis Expo where he actually saw a video advertisement for the cannabis company that would coincidentally become his future employer, he felt that Las Vegas would be an unsaturated enough of a city for cannabis employment that career growth would be a strong possibility.
His wife still works in logistics however, specializing in logistics for trade shows. As Vegas is one of the biggest cities in the world for trade shows, she more than supported a move to Sin City. Simultaneously, he and his wife decided to step into the next chapter of their lives and start a family. Howard felt that if he were to become a father, he would prefer to raise a child while working in an industry he holds a deep passion for.
After moving to Las Vegas soon after recreational cannabis passed in Nevada, Howard initially faced trouble getting into the industry due to his lack of professional cultivation experience. Certain companies either refused to take his resume or outright ignored him entirely. However, when he attended a job fair for Vegas-based cannabis company The Grove, his luck changed. The dispensary had recently adopted a 24/7 schedule and were in search of employees willing to work late hours. Although either through luck, destiny or both, The Grove instead hired the former logistics supervisor to work directly in their cultivation department at their facility as opposed to the dispensary side once they witnessed the passion that Howard possessed for cannabis in November of 2017.
In his initial position as a floater, Howard’s duties were essentially doing whatever tasks were needed and he became familiarized with the complex processes and stages necessary to grow quality cannabis, slowly learning the knowledge to be a jack of all trades for cultivation.
From there, he was assigned a specific cultivation room with a coworker. To add to his luck, the previous head of cultivation at The Grove wasn’t in any way stubborn about the current cultivation processes and was open to discussing different growing strategies with his employees and possibly implementing them in their operations. Howard recommended a restructuring of certain plants based on the natural climate of the strain’s origin countries themselves and altering the temperatures based on those climates.
Howard swiftly broke a company record soon after, achieving the honor of having the highest yield of his specific room, gaining him significant recognition from the head of cultivation and management. And eventually when the head of cultivation position became vacant, Howard’s responsibilities were increasing and the quality yields of his changes were very apparent. Once the decision on the next head of cultivation was reached, the position that he had desired was finally his to claim.
Quite like being an executive chef of a five-star restaurant, Howard agrees that no two days in cultivation are the same. Whether it’s an unforeseen damage or error in the sophisticated technologies and machines used to cultivate high-testing cannabis on a large scale or certain strains not growing as superiorly as it once did, Howard’s exciting position continues to keep him on his toes. And yet The Grove’s signature strains of their Kannabis house brand, Skywalker OG and Las Vegas Weekly’s Best of Vegas 2019 Winner for Best Strain named Velvet Elvis most notably, have all been cultivated by Howard and his team.
During my time thus far being employed in the cannabis industry in Las Vegas and attending several recurring events for the cannabis community in the city, Howard is one of many examples of someone I’ve interacted with who’ve decided to make the leap of faith from across our vast country and take a chance in the America’s hottest and rapidly growing industry. From all corners and states, the influx of new additions to cities where cannabis is legal will only expand even further.
