California city recruiting for marijuana jobs

GREENFIELD, California (KTRK) -- The city of Greenfield, California is recruiting people for hundreds of new jobs in the growing medical marijuana business.

From his office in city hall, city manager Jaime Fontes can see the construction of the first marijuana cultivation facility in Greenfield. But it's only the first of 11 to break ground in the city, ushering in a new wave of opportunities in a small, agricultural town.

Greenfield recently opened its doors to medical marijuana in anticipation of new jobs, ranging from harvesting to manufacturing to lab technicians and sales.

"I'm told in the 70s we were only a few thousand people, now we're almost 19,000 people. When you're growing that fast in the Hispanic population, there's a lot of lower income folks, you want to create economic opportunities at every level," Fontes said.

The city is launching an employment bank, advertising cannabis jobs on its website and collecting resumes and applications.

"We're going to capture positions for the citizens of Greenfield, which is what the council intended when they jumped on this opportunity a couple years back. It's time to bring this to fruition," Fontes said.

The city manager says as the industry grows, so will the opportunities in other industries.

"It also creates ripple opportunities for contractors, subcontractors, material men, restaurants, hotels, all the other industries that will make money from the ripple effect of this industry," Fontes said.

For more information on available jobs, visit the city's website.

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