Marijuana entrepreneur prefers marijuana-user salespeople

Usage of marijuana has been doubled over the past years as laws and attitudes toward the drug dramatically transformed.  Entrepreneurs of marijuana will choose their ambassadors to be users to relate the benefits of their products to customers.

Marijuana consumption increased among all groups studied, but researchers noted certain rise in women, Black or Hispanic individuals living in the South.  These people are older or in their middle ages, according to CBS News.

The study conducted by scientists from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism also proved that 3 out of every 10 Americans who consumed Marijuana in the past year were identified as having a marijuana use disorder.  It means abuse or dependence on the drug adding up to about 6.8 million Americans.  However, the ratio of people with marijuana use disorders has decreased among users in total, from 36% in 2001-2002 down to 31% in 2012-2013.

"The trend upward in marijuana use indicates that more adults are at risk for marijuana-related adverse consequences, including the risk of marijuana use disorders (abuse or dependence) that we showed. Our findings are consistent with the studies of others that have shown increases in problems such cannabis-related emergency room visits and fatal vehicle crashes," the study's lead author, Deborah Hasin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, told CBS News.

Marijuana is also known as weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, Mary Jane and other many names.  It is a greenish-gray mixture of the dried shredded leaves and flowers of Cannabis sativa, a hemp plant.  Some users smoke marijuana in hand-rolled cigarettes called joints while others use pipes called bongs or marijuana cigars, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Marijuana is also brewed as a tea and, specifically when it is sold or consumed for medicinal purposes, is commonly mixed into foods like brownies, cookies, candies, and even chocolates.  Additionally, concentrated resins consisting of high doses of marijuana's active ingredients, such as honey-like "hash oil, waxy budder", and hard amber-like "shatter," are extremely popular for both recreational and medical use.

Since marijuana is permitted to use for medical purposes in California, a couple who own and operate G Farmalabs, grows, process and manufactures cannabis chocolates and other products.  They employ over 50 people in Anaheim, CA and sells to about 600 dispensaries.   The company's sales reached to more than $4 million in 2014 and expecting that number will at least double this year, as reported by Forbes.

Nicole Gonzalez and husband Ata, from the Dominican Republic and Central America, owned the company.  They moved from Florida to California to participate in the growing marijuana industry.  Nicole's grandfather owns a tobacco field giving her an edge on marijuana farming. 

She started growing marijuana then run a retail store and expanded to cannabis oil production to incorporate products such as truffles and brittle candies including vape oil for vape pens.  Although the business is a huge success, she has a hard time getting a loan.

"No matter how good my numbers are, I can't get a loan," she said due to banking restrictions on the industry. "If we need another delivery truck or oil production machine, we have to pay for it directly." That means all profits are invested right back into the business.

She said that she is looking beyond the general resume when hiring her brand ambassadors and.  "Yale and Harvard aren't going to teach you the marijuana culture," she said, "I need salespeople who have smoked weed and can talk about our products."