FROM HASHSTORIA

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY KAYLYNN WOHL

What do you know about training for budtenders?

I know there are places that do classes for training, but I don’t think they’re being pushed across the board. For instance, my first cannabis job paid us to do a CBD certification class that was run through East Fork Cultivars. They came in and did a workshop about CBD, its effects, the ways you consume it and the ways it could benefit you when eating versus smoking it. It was essentially a couple hours of a class with a few presentations, we asked some questions, there was a mock test at the end, and we got a certification and a badge.

Would you have wanted more in depth training when you joined the cannabis industry?

Most definitely. For instance where I’m originally from in Oakland, there’s a cannabis university called Oaksterdam, and it was one of the first in the country. There are places with an in depth curriculum that you can take, but it’s not something that’s required. If you want a job at budtending, all you do is take a 30-minute test online. They just want to know that you know the laws. Personally, growing up, I was around a lot of drugs and people who used drugs. I had questions like what happens when you take them, why do they make you act that way, and what are the short and long term effects? Luckily I grew up around the time with the internet, so I would sit and read about brain chemistry and receptors and how drugs affect them.

When we first discussed the importance of this issue of Green Eugene, I knew I had to find the perfect product for our recurring High Recommendations article, and had a goal in mind: the product needed to support an organization that helped those incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes. And not only a product, but one that a local Eugene dispensary carried.

Rest assured, after reading this, you can do your part to fight mass incarceration for cannabis crimes! Rebel Spirit Cannabis Company partners and profit shares with The Last Prisoner Project, which advocates for criminal justice reform in three ways: prisoner release, record clearing through clean slate initiatives and reentry programs. Together, they create a pathway of hope and success for its constituents.

Rebel Spirit CEO Diane Downey and her husband Chris Beckler became very active in the cannabis industry, which is how they met the founder of the Last Prisoner Project, Steve DeAngelo, through his Harborside Dispensary in Oakland, California. When they found out DeAngelo was shifting his sights to creating the Last Prisoner Project, the couple knew it was just the cause they were looking to support. Rebel Spirit was one of the first, and most charitable, cannabis companies to profit share with the Last Prisoner Project.