Marcus Kerr was running his own food truck in California in 2018, when he parked by a marijuana dispensary one day.
鈥淚 just ended up meeting the owner of this company, and they had my food,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey said, 鈥楬ey, can you infuse this?鈥� Then I started working for the big guys.鈥�
Kerr began creating edible recipes in a California lab, and he鈥檚 been in the cannabis industry since. Now he鈥檚 excited to be part of Missouri鈥檚 new journey into the recreational marijuana space.
Kerr moved to St. Louis about a month ago and joined the Luxury Leaf Cannabis Dispensary team as a specialist. Beyond a career opportunity, cannabis science is something passed down within his family.
鈥淚鈥檓 from Jamaica, where it鈥檚 growing on the side of the mountains, so it鈥檚 in my DNA,鈥� he laughed. 鈥淟iterally it is, like in my chromosomes.鈥�
Kerr is among thousands of people who have landed cannabis jobs in Missouri since voters approved recreational marijuana use through a constitutional amendment, which appeared on the November ballot as Amendment 3.
The job surge is best seen through the number of licenses the state approves for new employees each month 鈥� it鈥檚 quadrupled since November.
Anyone who wants to work in the industry 鈥� including owners 鈥� must get an 鈥渁gent ID badge鈥� through the state, which includes a background check.
In November, the Department of Health and Human Services, which is charged with overseeing the state鈥檚 cannabis program, approved 264 badges. It doubled in December to more than 500 badges 鈥� and then doubled again to more than 1,100 in both January and February.
Christy Essex runs the largest Missouri-based cannabis staffing company, Se7en Staffing & Employment Solutions, and foresees the job growth continuing to shoot up throughout this year.
鈥淛ust across the board, you鈥檙e seeing an increase in need,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n the manufacturing and the laboratories even, we鈥檝e actually been staffing for all the entities right now.鈥�
Dispensaries statewide are struggling to keep the shelves stocked, Essex said, so some companies are also hiring temporary 鈥減roject鈥� employees to get through the 鈥渟hort-term crunches.鈥�
According to DHSS, at the end of February, there were 12,970 individuals with marijuana agent IDs, up from 10,100 at the end of November.
Missouri is seen as the 鈥渄arling鈥� of the cannabis industry after reaching in sales 鈥� $72 million for recreational marijuana 鈥� in the first month, said Sloane Barbour, the CEO of , a technology platform that helps cannabis companies hire hourly workers.
And Missouri is on pace to become a billion-dollar market.
鈥淏illion-dollar markets like Michigan, Illinois and Massachusetts employ anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000 workers in the cannabis industry,鈥� Barbour said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 enormous job growth, and it really happens quite quickly. So we are seeing customers and partners in Missouri aggressively and actively hiring.鈥�
One potential snag in getting those positions filled quickly is a bill making its way through the state legislature that would require fingerprinting as part of the background checks for all employees.
The bill has already passed the state Senate and is expected to have an easy path in the House as well.
Background checks
Essex has been in workforce development in Missouri since 2014. Around the same time, she began researching the benefits of medical use for one of her family members.
When Illinois and Missouri began embracing medical marijuana, she saw an opportunity to combine her passion for workforce development and educating people about the benefits of cannabis.
鈥淎nd here I am,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o my heart鈥檚 all in it, all the way around.鈥�
Essex helps train employees at all levels, so they know what to expect when entering the constantly-evolving industry, she said.
鈥淵ou can be a chemist, but what鈥檚 it鈥檚 like to be a chemist in a cannabis laboratory?鈥� she said.
Her company spends a 鈥渢remendous鈥� amount of time educating people about the background checks. Many people, especially minorities, she said, automatically assume if there is a background check that they won鈥檛 qualify if they have a misdemeanor on their record.
鈥淚t puts a level of fear in individuals,鈥� she said.
The constitution states that people with a 鈥渄isqualifying felony鈥� can鈥檛 work in the industry, but it doesn鈥檛 specify what types of felony offenses. It exempts marijuana offenses that are eligible for expungement. It also says that if it鈥檚 a nonviolent felony offense, employees are in the clear if it has been more than five years since the charge.
For other felonies, 鈥渕ore than five years have passed since the person was released from parole or probation, and he or she has not been convicted of any subsequent felony criminal offenses,鈥� it states.
According to DHSS, a lot of their review is subjective.
鈥淲hat is written into law is then applied to each individual record, so it is a case-by-case analysis and can鈥檛 simply be determined by a checklist of potential offenses,鈥� said Lisa Cox, a spokeswoman for DHSS, in an email to The Independent.
The recreational or adult-use of cannabis has been approved in Washington, D.C., and 21 states, and the medical use has been legalized in 39 states.
Every state handles background checks differently. In , only owners are required to go through fingerprint-based criminal background checks, not employees. But requires fingerprint-based background checks for all employees, board members, owners and volunteers.
John Payne, founder and managing member of Amendment 2 Consultants, said lawmakers often refer to what鈥檚 known as the 鈥溾�� as the basis for how they go about this process.
In 2013, then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued a memo to address the rise in states legalizing medical marijuana. Payne says it essentially was an agreement that the federal government was going to leave state marijuana programs alone, as long as they meet certain conditions.
鈥淥ne of those conditions was basically preventing people from organized crime from getting into the marijuana business,鈥� Payne said. 鈥淚t depends on what the background check is for, right? If it鈥檚 for people that have that sort of background, that would be reasonable.鈥�
Fingerprinting
Since Dec. 8, when Amendment 3 went into effect, DHSS stopped requiring fingerprinting for the ID badge applications of employees.
鈥淵ou have to attest to not committing disqualifying offenses,鈥� Essex said. 鈥淩ight now, we鈥檙e able to get people to work within a 48-hour time period.鈥�
Adding in the fingerprinting process, she said, takes that up to 14 days to get an employee to work.
Like California, Missouri鈥檚 adult-use law through Amendment 3 owners to go fingerprint-based background checks, according to DHSS.
However, the 2018 constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana 鈥� which was on the ballot as Amendment 2 鈥� all owners, employees and contractors to go through this process for medical marijuana, Cox said.
A measure, sponsored by Republican Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville, would revert back to the original fingerprinting process before Amendment 3 went into effect. The language was added as an amendment to a regarding background checks for school employees, which will be heard in a House committee on Tuesday.
The measure has the support of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, which represents cannabis professionals and business owners.
鈥淭he bill proposes the same level of background check requirements for all facility owners, employees and contractors regardless of the type of facility licensure,鈥� Cox said.
Essex said the challenge she sees is that there weren鈥檛 enough vendors that take the fingerprints to keep pace with the employees for medical marijuana, particularly in the larger cities like Kansas City and St. Louis.
鈥淗opefully if they do implement the fingerprinting again,鈥� Essex said, 鈥渢here鈥檒l be more providers in the state of Missouri that will be able to deal with a large quantity of candidates.鈥�
Columbia-based attorney Dan Viets, who helped write the language for Amendment 3, said he doesn鈥檛 remember anyone intentionally removing the fingerprint requirements for employees from the recreational marijuana program.
But he believes it should be left out.
鈥淭he motivation, frankly, was to draft something that would meet the concerns that some voters might have about people with criminal history being involved in the industry,鈥� he said of the 2018 constitutional amendment. 鈥淚f we had to do it over, we might not have required it for medical employees either.鈥�
During a Senate floor debate, Sen. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, said the fingerprinting measure was 鈥渁 federal requirement.鈥�
鈥淪o it鈥檚 putting us in line with federal regulations,鈥� she said, regarding the amendment on her background checks bill.
She was likely referencing the Cole Memo, Payne said, because the federal government doesn鈥檛 regulate marijuana at all.
Barbour agreed.
鈥淭here鈥檚 $32 billion worth of commerce happening鈥ight now in the U.S. that is all technically federally illegal 鈥� racketeering of the broadest scale,鈥� Barbour said. 鈥淪o what that means is that state legislatures鈥� are trying to figure it out as they go. This is pretty uncharted territory.鈥�
