Vangst Launches Social Equity Hiring Program

The cannabis industry recruiting platform Vangst announced Thursday the launch of a social equity hiring program aimed at helping people who were harmed by the War on Drugs find jobs in the cannabis industry.

Vangst will start the program Sept. 21 at its San Francisco Cannabis Career Fair, which will include an expungement clinic and social equity speaker series.

On the same day, Vangst will join National Expungement Week in Denver to offer resources on finding jobs in the industry to those with a criminal history.

The idea behind the program is to help 5,000 Californians to find jobs in the medical and recreational cannabis industries.

Vangst said it plans for its program to reach two more states by 2020.

Click here for more information about the upcoming Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference Oct. 22-23 in Chicago.

“The Vangst team and our corporate partners recognize the urgent need to address the social injustice perpetrated by the War on Drugs that has disproportionately incarcerated people of color and low-income communities,” Vangst founder and CEO Karson Humiston said in a statement. 

“As the regulated market becomes more robust each year with more states legalizing recreational cannabis, we believe it is our duty to offer employment opportunities to those whose criminal offenses are no longer relevant under current state laws. In 2019, nonviolent cannabis-related drug offenses should not bar anybody from making an honest living.”

The regulated cannabis industry employs more than 160,000 people, and it's projected the sector will account for about 340,000 jobs by 2020, according to Vangst.

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