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Any aspiring journalists looking for a great gig? Well New Times parent company, Village Voice Media, is seeking an energetic young writer for what may be the greatest job in journalism — marijuana critic.
You may have to move to the Mile High City but when you’re already high, what’s a few more feet, right?
Colorado has a medicinal marijuana law on the books and Westword, our Denver sister paper, is looking for someone to review medicinal marijuana parlors and products for a new column called “Mile Highs and Lows.” As you could probably imagine, there is no shortage of applicants.
The paper has already received more than 120 applications for the gig, many of whom have offered their pot-puffing services for free.
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Westword editor Patti Calhoun says she is shocked by the amount of attention the whole thing has received and that the BBC has even contacted the paper wanting to know about the innovative column.
Calhoun says she wants the column to focus on both the marijuana parlor and the weed itself.
“We want to look at the ambiance of the place — is it comfortable, is it sketchy, we also want to know about the quality and price of the stuff too,” she says.
Considering Colorado doesn’t tend to prosecute for minor possession charges, Calhoun says the paper hasn’t ruled out rating some weed you would buy from some guy in a park and not just the legally legit parlor weed.
Don’t pack your bags (or your bowls) just yet — there are some prerequisites.
Columnists must have a medical condition that allows them to purchase and smoke marijuana and must know how to write — well.
Sorry to dash the hopes of any of you semi-literate hippies out there, but this probably can’t be done from the couch either.
Industry watchers say whoever gets the gig would be the first of his or her kind.
Whoever gets the gig may not be winning that Pulitzer he dreamed about in J-school but he’d get to be one of the first professional pot smokers in America, so who cares.
