Marijuana trimmers can move into jobs that make $90,000 a year

Not feeling the unpaid internship? There’s an alternative in states like Colorado.

Marijuana bud trimmers can make a starting salary of $12 to $15 an hour, The Associated press reports. Successful employees might eventually become gardeners or concentrate makers and take home as much as $90,000 a year.

The work entails trimming away the leaves from the marijuana plant and needs to be done by hand, using small scissors.

People think it’s a job for stoners, but it’s not, according to 32-year-old Brittny Houghton, whose family owns a dispensary in Colorado.

“It’s a real job,” she told the AP. “It’s 9 to 5, you have to be on time, you don’t have to be a smoker, and the quality of the work is important.”

Most swing state voters back legal weed

Most voters in swing states support legalizing small amounts of marijuana for personal use, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

Voters approve of legal weed in the key states of Florida (55 percent), Ohio (52 percent) and Pennsylvania (51 percent), the survey found. Medical marijuana enjoyed overwhelming support in those states, with more than 80 percent in favor.

The funny thing: even though the majority of voters back legalizing medical and recreational weed, only 17 percent said they would “definitely” or “probably” use marijuana themselves.

In contrast, 81 percent said they weren’t likely to use the drug.

Uh huh, right.

The first weed-tech company goes public

One of the first companies to successfully market a marijuana app plans to launch its IPO this week, making it the first weed-tech business to go public, The Daily Beast reports.

Mass Roots bills itself as a “Facebook for stoners” and boasts 275,000 users, but the company’s real accomplishment was convincing Apple to allow marijuana-related apps on its store, reversing an existing policy.

The number of users might seem small, but keep in mind the program is limited to states where marijuana is legal for medical or recreational use. Down the road, the company hopes to add options for pre-ordering weed from dispensaries, as well as delivery.

CEO Isaac Dietrich says the company’s founders are also big cannabis fans.

“We got the idea for Mass Roots while we were smoking–all of our features, what we’re doing, all of this stuff–comes from smoking,” he told The Daily Beast. “A company like ours could never be run by a big corporation, with the suits and their corporate style.”

Ted Hesson was formerly the immigration editor at Fusion, covering the issue from Washington, D.C. He also writes about drug laws and (occasionally) baseball. On the side: guitars, urban biking, and fiction.