On February 15, 2020 Utah Cannabis United (UCU) and Utah Cannabis Education (UCE) teamed up to host Utah’s first Cannabis Career Fair UCU Founder, Tana King, and Derek Anderson, founder of UCE, felt a civic duty to take on organizing this event after its previous organizer (Willy Cummer) dropped the event for personal reasons. Following the general excitement of Cummer’s announcement of the upcoming fair at a Utah-Cann networking event in January, people were disappointed when word got out that it would not happen.
Tana and Derek were crunched to organize an event they quickly came to realize didn’t have much of a foundation. Tana used experience from her previous employment at Muscle MX to pull resources together into a marketing campaign for the fair. Her efforts included recruiting vendors, potential employers, and a team of volunteers to create everything the event lacked. Derek, a long-standing member of the Cannabis community, used his connections to provide an educational outline for attendees in addition to a variety of classes on hemp farming, brand culture, medical marijuana programs, and Cannabis research. Anderson’s classes aimed to help attendees identify how they fit into the Cannabis industry, and where to go from there.
After being cancelled and then picked up by new organizers, skepticism was loud in the Cannabis community about how the Fair would turn out. In the end, interest in Utah’s booming Cannabis culture trumped all doubts.
A variety of local industry professionals were on-hand to share personal experience, relevant information, and resources.
Among them were Owners of Dragonfly medical dispensary, and Hemp Lucid, a CBD company voted best in Utah last year by City Weekly magazine. Others included Hill Family Farm from Helper, Utah, and Beehive Buds CBD, where everything is processed and owned by women. SLC HAZE also made an appearance, a shop offering hemp products that focus on education.
Shane England, from the Great Basin Farmer Co-op was a feature participant. Recently on several news channels for his arrest on the way home from the career fair, England took time to set us straight about what happened.
Shane is well-known in the Cannabis industry for being true and ethical. One highly visible example is his creation of a local farmer’s co-op, designed to work as a supportive network. The Great Basin Farmer Co-op also brings famers together in their fight against gouging by shady business interests in the manufacturing, processing, seed and propagation sectors.
On the way home from the Cannabis Career Fair, Shane was pulled over by a Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) Sgt. Nick Street, who claimed to have pulled England over for a mud flap violation. According to Shane, Sgt. Street made a visual note of the hemp plant in the vehicle, and commented on its smell. This was the same plant featured at the Career Fair just hours earlier,
Shane said he had tried to explain about the plant, and where he had been travelling from. He also stated he didn’t feel the officer had listened. Shane also mentioned that during the conversation about the plant with the officer, it seemed the officer was confused about the words hemp, marijuana, and cannabis.
Controversial reports indicate Shane was arrested because he did not pass his field sobriety test. England was charged with a DUI.
UHP stands by their decision, claiming its officers understand the lawful uses, and production of Cannabis. Shane believes his exchange with UHP shows the opposite. As Shane has openly stated, he feels his civil rights were violated.
Tana King is looking at Spring for the next Cannabis Career Fair as the first of many. By then, medical cannabis programs will be up and running, and farms will be needing all hands on deck.
Stay-tuned, Tana and Derek will be expanding education and opportunity for attendees in the next round.
