No shortage of tax-free work for pot 'clippers'
By Elianna Lev, THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER - There's green to be made clipping and trimming the green leaves in British Columbia's marijuana industry.
The prospect of tax-free income is driving some people into temporary work as "clippers" for indoor and outdoor grow operations.
It's not only against the law, it's also considered the most labour-intensive part of the harvesting process. But there isn't a shortage of people willing to do the work.
Pot clippers - also known as trimmers - groom marijuana plants that have been harvested from fields or indoor grow operations. The workers pare down the buds from the plants to make them presentable for sale.
A demand for workers throughout the province starts at the beginning of fall, when most outdoor crops are ready to be harvested.
Payment is either on an hourly basis, starting around $10 an hour, or by weight, according to individuals who have worked in the business but did not want to be identified. Meals are often provided and clippers are usually allowed to keep some of the product for personal use.
The job is usually arranged through a drug dealer or someone close to the person who runs the operation. Since the sale of marijuana is illegal, trust plays a big role in scouting potential employees, which is why some people interviewed did not want their identities revealed.
One woman said she found out about the job through a friend, who lives in a remote part of the province. She spent two weeks earning the trust of the people who ran the outdoor grow op before being offered a job.
The woman never saw the crops. Instead, she was taken to a sheltered space, which she described as "cosy," where large amounts of dried plants were laid out.
She and several others spent up to 14 hours a day trimming buds off plants using special gardening scissors.
"By that point I was falling off my chair," she said of the long hours.
Although the work was repetitive and labour-intensive, the woman said she trimmed as much as she could because she was getting paid by the ounce. She could make up to $300 in cash for a single day's work.
"My relationship with cash was shifting, it was just paper," she said. "I was stuffing it into my pocket, I was like, 'This is demented.' "
The woman said she looks back on the experience favourably and would do it again in the future. Although there were pitfalls - along with the long hours, she also started feeling sick from breathing in dust in the close quarters - she made a lot off money in four weeks.
Never in her month as a clipper did the woman feel unsafe or nervous. She said the remote location gave her comfort, and the people she worked with were mostly laid-back and friendly.
Jacob Hunter, who works for the B.C. Marijuana Party, said he worked as a clipper while a student in Prince George. He had a hard time finding summer work in the city and was complaining to his pot dealer about his student loans when he was offered a job.
At $10 an hour, it may not have seemed that lucrative. But putting in long days paid off.
"They pay overtime, even though it was black market," he said. "You'd still get time-and-a-half for eight hours and double time for 12."
Hunter said he worked alongside several other people in someone's basement. He said while the work was monotonous, he enjoyed getting a "contact high" from handling large quantities of weed.
Overall, he described it as a decent job.
"They make it very comfortable, you're sitting on a chair, comfortably in someone's house," Hunter said. "It's warm, they pass around joints a lot and all your meals are paid for."
Both Hunter and the woman said they worked for people who grew weed on a medium scale and weren't linked to organized crime. Hunter said some growers are "stereotypically old hippies," the mom-and-pops of the marijuana industry.
"No one's getting rich off of it but you can make a decent, middle-class-level living by working just with friends and growing a normal amount and not being involved with organized crime," he said.
Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard of the RCMP's Vancouver drug unit said operations with between 500 and 1,000 plants generally hire extra help to clip and monitor the plants. Larger-scale operators often have up to seven different grow operations and employ larger staffs, he said.
There's no lack of people willing to take the risk of being associated with the drug trade, Goddard said.
"There's an awful lot of unemployed people out there, and this is a way that they have of making money on a cash basis that is largely undisclosed to the government," he said. "Obviously they aren't being taxed on it because they're not receiving a T4 at the end of the year, I can guarantee you that."
In 30 years with the Mounties, Goddard said he's busted as many as 500 grow operations. He said clippers get charged along with everyone else involved, usually with possession of marijuana, production of marijuana or possession for the purpose of trafficking.
He strongly advises people to stay away from such employment, regardless of the scale of the operation.
"(Clippers) don't consider themselves to be criminals, quite often" he said.
"It's against the law, I shouldn't have to advise anyone."
By Elianna Lev, THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER - There's green to be made clipping and trimming the green leaves in British Columbia's marijuana industry.
The prospect of tax-free income is driving some people into temporary work as "clippers" for indoor and outdoor grow operations.
It's not only against the law, it's also considered the most labour-intensive part of the harvesting process. But there isn't a shortage of people willing to do the work.
Pot clippers - also known as trimmers - groom marijuana plants that have been harvested from fields or indoor grow operations. The workers pare down the buds from the plants to make them presentable for sale.
A demand for workers throughout the province starts at the beginning of fall, when most outdoor crops are ready to be harvested.
Payment is either on an hourly basis, starting around $10 an hour, or by weight, according to individuals who have worked in the business but did not want to be identified. Meals are often provided and clippers are usually allowed to keep some of the product for personal use.
The job is usually arranged through a drug dealer or someone close to the person who runs the operation. Since the sale of marijuana is illegal, trust plays a big role in scouting potential employees, which is why some people interviewed did not want their identities revealed.
One woman said she found out about the job through a friend, who lives in a remote part of the province. She spent two weeks earning the trust of the people who ran the outdoor grow op before being offered a job.
The woman never saw the crops. Instead, she was taken to a sheltered space, which she described as "cosy," where large amounts of dried plants were laid out.
She and several others spent up to 14 hours a day trimming buds off plants using special gardening scissors.
"By that point I was falling off my chair," she said of the long hours.
Although the work was repetitive and labour-intensive, the woman said she trimmed as much as she could because she was getting paid by the ounce. She could make up to $300 in cash for a single day's work.
"My relationship with cash was shifting, it was just paper," she said. "I was stuffing it into my pocket, I was like, 'This is demented.' "
The woman said she looks back on the experience favourably and would do it again in the future. Although there were pitfalls - along with the long hours, she also started feeling sick from breathing in dust in the close quarters - she made a lot off money in four weeks.
Never in her month as a clipper did the woman feel unsafe or nervous. She said the remote location gave her comfort, and the people she worked with were mostly laid-back and friendly.
Jacob Hunter, who works for the B.C. Marijuana Party, said he worked as a clipper while a student in Prince George. He had a hard time finding summer work in the city and was complaining to his pot dealer about his student loans when he was offered a job.
At $10 an hour, it may not have seemed that lucrative. But putting in long days paid off.
"They pay overtime, even though it was black market," he said. "You'd still get time-and-a-half for eight hours and double time for 12."
Hunter said he worked alongside several other people in someone's basement. He said while the work was monotonous, he enjoyed getting a "contact high" from handling large quantities of weed.
Overall, he described it as a decent job.
"They make it very comfortable, you're sitting on a chair, comfortably in someone's house," Hunter said. "It's warm, they pass around joints a lot and all your meals are paid for."
Both Hunter and the woman said they worked for people who grew weed on a medium scale and weren't linked to organized crime. Hunter said some growers are "stereotypically old hippies," the mom-and-pops of the marijuana industry.
"No one's getting rich off of it but you can make a decent, middle-class-level living by working just with friends and growing a normal amount and not being involved with organized crime," he said.
Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard of the RCMP's Vancouver drug unit said operations with between 500 and 1,000 plants generally hire extra help to clip and monitor the plants. Larger-scale operators often have up to seven different grow operations and employ larger staffs, he said.
There's no lack of people willing to take the risk of being associated with the drug trade, Goddard said.
"There's an awful lot of unemployed people out there, and this is a way that they have of making money on a cash basis that is largely undisclosed to the government," he said. "Obviously they aren't being taxed on it because they're not receiving a T4 at the end of the year, I can guarantee you that."
In 30 years with the Mounties, Goddard said he's busted as many as 500 grow operations. He said clippers get charged along with everyone else involved, usually with possession of marijuana, production of marijuana or possession for the purpose of trafficking.
He strongly advises people to stay away from such employment, regardless of the scale of the operation.
"(Clippers) don't consider themselves to be criminals, quite often" he said.
"It's against the law, I shouldn't have to advise anyone."
