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Job Fair for Marijuana Grower

SCRANTON — A medical marijuana processing facility is now taking job applications. The grower in Scranton is one of four facilities with permits in our ar...

SCRANTON -- A medical marijuana processing facility is now taking job applications. The grower in Scranton is one of four facilities with permits in our area.

Crews have started renovating what used to be Scranton Clothing Recyclers on Rosanna Avenue. It will become Pennsylvania Medical Solutions.

The CEO says they've already received more applications for jobs here than they have for any of their other facilities.

Dr. Kyle Kingsley worked in emergency medicine before crossing over into the medical marijuana business. We met with him while he set up for a job expo at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel in downtown Scranton. The city will host his third medical marijuana processing facility.

"I would say that our facility here in Scranton is the best starting point for a facility that we've had in the United States, and also we've had over 500 online applicants and 250 plus RSVPs for tonight's job expo. We've never had that kind of response," Dr. Kingsley said.

All those applicants are for about 40 jobs at the facility on Rosanna Avenue in Scranton. It's under construction right now, but Dr. Kingsley says he expects to be up and running by December.

He says about half of the applicants are from Lackawanna County. They're looking for rank-and-file workers but also people with backgrounds in pharmacy or horticulture.

"Doesn't need to be cannabis-specific. In fact, there's not a lot of legal paths to be an expert in cannabis cultivation in Pennsylvania obviously, at this stage. But, we like, for example, our cultivators that we pull from other states are often folks who are experts, masters in horticulture."

The marijuana will be grown and processed into oil at the place in Scranton. Patients will pick it up at a dispensary, which requires a different state permit.

Dr. Kingsley expects the need for his operation to grow over time.

"I'm very interested in making Scranton the pharmaceutical model medical cannabis hub of the state of Pennsylvania," Dr. Kingsley said. "That is our mission. And with that, great jobs, and hopefully some more vibrance to the economy here."

The folks from Pennsylvania Medical Solutions say the jobs they are looking to fill pay from $16 an hour all the way up to six figures a year.

They expect to have this place up and running by the end of the year.

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