Nickolas Jarosh started smoking marijuana after his shifts as a 911 dispatcher. He’d flip between working days and nights, and the inconsistent schedule made it difficult to fall asleep. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, helped, he said.

Jarosh, 29, who now lives outside Houston, no longer works a job that forces him to keep inconsistent hours. He also no longer has access to marijuana, which he said had also been helping to ease his anxiety and depression.

It was 2017 and Nevada had just made recreational cannabis legal. As a recruiter for the agricultural industry, I remember thinking to myself: Where are they going to find employees in an industry that does not exist?

This is a tough industry to work in, especially when it’s new and the goalposts keep changing. However, once you gain a fundamental understanding of the industry, you can learn to adapt and build a foundation that can get you through any changes or difficulties that may arise. When it comes to staffing, here are a few things I learned along the way.

Cannabis consumption lounges will be coming to Nevada next year under a bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak earlier this month. The measure, Assembly Bill 341 (AB341), was signed by Sisolak on June 4 after being passed by lawmakers in both houses of the state legislature in May. Currently, onsite cannabis consumption is only allowed at the NuWu Cannabis Marketplace on Las Vegas Paiute tribal land north of downtown.

Just as the summer travel season kicks off, at the tail end of pandemic isolation no less, states and countries that allow recreational marijuana use are vying to be the next hotbed for cannabis tourism. 

Roger Bloss sat parked in his vehicle near a smoking area outside a prominent Strip casino resort.

Bloss, the CEO of MJ Holdings, a Las Vegas-based company that grows cannabis in Nevada, observed dozens of people inhaling and exhaling for about an hour.

“I’d say 90% of them were obviously smoking weed,” Bloss told the Las Vegas Sun. “I feel that’s not conducive for certain kinds of tourism and I certainly think it will impact our convention business in Las Vegas Mondays through Thursdays.”

The global cannabis industry is maturing, demands are increasing and better reforms are being enacted for the industry to attain a mature market. The not-so-new innovation that is becoming prevalent now is the "cannabis consumption lounge".

The basics

The best way to explain this is to liken it to a bar. Simply put, a bar is an alcohol consumption lounge, that is a public space where alcoholic drinks are consumed. Therefore a cannabis consumption lounge is a licensed and safe space for a group of people to consume cannabis.

Cannabis lounges may just be the best element to make cannabis socially acceptable by all age groups in the country. It will go a long way in ensuring an equitable industry that caters to all.

In 2020, Nevada dispensaries sold nearly $700 million dollars worth of cannabis and derivative products. Before AB400 was signed into law last week, many who used those products also drove a motor vehicle within 48 hours of use and likely exceeded the per se blood level limit for Tetracanabidiol (THC), the psychoactive component in cannabis, when they did it.

Nevada has legalized a new sort of food and beverage establishment: The cannabis consumption lounge.

The facilities will be permitted under strict regulations to sell THC-laced foods and beverages for consumption onsite. Other refreshments can also be offered. The law is mum on whether the selection of non-THC-spiked beverages could include alcoholic drinks. Entertainment is permitted.

The places require a state license. The licensing fee for a free-standing lounge—one that’s not attached to a retail dispensary—is $10,000.

American attitudes towards the legalization of marijuana have shifted in the last few years. In 2019, 66% of Americans say the use of marijuana should be legal, which represents a stark difference from the 33% of Americans who supported the measure in 2009.

As a result, a growing number of states have legalized recreational marijuana. Nine states are currently selling marijuana recreationally and several other states have legalized marijuana but are still setting up the retail and tax structure. 

Nevada seemed like a sure bet before the pandemic for cannabis companies. A seemingly never-ending stream of tourists from states where cannabis isn’t legal or the legal product offerings were meager. Several companies made huge investments in the state, especially in Las Vegas, to capitalize on tourists happy to plunk down big bucks to sneak some products back home. Of course, it isn’t legal to take cannabis products across state lines, but that doesn’t stop many tourists from taking the risk. The pandemic, of course, caused that market to crash as tourism dried up and the operations were left to depend on the business of residents only. Now it looks like the cannabis comeback is underway.