Most of Southern Nevada’s recreational cannabis dispensaries are scarcely four years old. To put that into perspective, cocktails have been around since the early 1800s, which means the profession of bartending has enjoyed some 200 years to develop recipes, tools and schools.

Budtending, by comparison, is in its infancy, so its practitioners are in the process of creating the sort of institutional knowledge bartenders can take for granted. When customers report that a new strain helped their sleep, eased their anxiety or simply made Godzilla vs. Kong more rad, budtenders take careful note. They’re writing up that knowledge base as fast as we can smoke it.

Budtending, with its notes of mixology, medicine and math-rock bassist, might seem like a difficult profession to jump into. Conor Mitts, a budtender at Curaleaf’s Las Vegas Boulevard location, says he had mild reservations about it before last year’s financial downturn inspired him to take a chance. “I didn’t think of it as an actual career path that I could follow,” he says. “But I wanted to pursue something that I was passionate about, and I’ve been passionate about the marijuana industry since … well, probably before I should have been.”

Here are a few of his tips on how to become a budtender yourself.

GET YOUR CARDS

If you’re working in a hospitality position, you might already have a Sheriff’s Card. If so, that’s great; you’ll need it. If not, you should see about getting one, though Mitts notes one can’t get a Sheriff’s Card until they’ve landed a job that requires one. (See the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s work card page: bit.ly/2OjxooA.)

To get a job in a cannabis dispensary you’ll need an agent card from the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board (ccb.nv.gov). Mitts strongly suggests not waiting until someone asks you for it.

“Every marijuana worker in the state is required to get an agent card,” he says. “You have to go on to the Nevada Compliance Board website to apply for it. … They actually have to run your background check; you give them a ton of information.”

Once you’ve secured an agent card, Mitts says, the path to a dispensary job becomes considerably clearer.

“One of the managers over here [at Curaleaf] said, ‘Anytime I see someone who already has their agent card, I pretty much push their résumé right through to corporate,” Mitts says.

DITCH YOUR PRECONCEPTIONS

Everybody knows sativa causes paranoia and indica causes “couch lock,” right? (A popular mnemonic device from my formative years: “Indica = in da couch.”) That’s one of the false assumptions about weed you’ll need to let go of if you become a budtender, along with the seemingly plausible belief that more THC content equals a better high.

“When I first came in here, a lot of people were like, ‘What’s the highest [THC percentage] in the store?’ I mean, that’s how I shopped at first,” Mitts says. “I came to realize that’s wrong.”

Mitts says that in addition to considering how much THC a strain has, he looks at its terpenes—the aromatic compounds that give a strain its particular scent and subtly influence its effects. For example: myrcene is known for its relaxing effect; terpinolene produces an uplifting boost; and pinene, which Mitts calls “one of the most feared terpenes out there” for its potential to cause anxiety, enhances alertness and focus. (“I personally love it,” Mitts adds.) The presence of one or another of these can easily blur that line of what a sativa or indica feels like.

“You have to realize what the terpenes themselves are saying,” Mitts says. “A lot of things are mislabeled to me—like Blue Dream, which is historically a sativa. However, we get it in all the time, and it will have absurd amounts of myrcene. And I try to warn people that even though the label says it’s a sativa, they’re going to get a very heavy, relaxing high because of all the myrcene that’s in it.”

MEET THE GROWERS, WATCH THE PRESENTATIONS

“I’ve gotten to see one or two cultivation sites, [one of them being] Acres, which Curaleaf owns. But with COVID, there’s not as many tours,” Mitts says. “But I can definitely say that going and seeing the stuff is beneficial. And sometimes, in place of that, what they’ve been doing are essentially slide shows, where they send a representative and they’ll train a group of us on their product. That’s extremely beneficial, getting the selling points on each company that you sell.”

Representatives also provide samples, which can sometimes surprise even the most knowledgeable of budtenders. Once, Mitts received a promotional sample of a half-gram infused pre-roll, which he initially dismissed: “What the hell is that gonna do for me?” But to his surprise, “It was amazing. I couldn’t believe it, but this tiny little joint got me super high,” Mitts says. Since then, he has recommended it to customers who want a small add-on to their purchase.

TAKE YOUR WORK HOME WITH YOU … SOMETIMES

Mitts tries out Curaleaf’s products often—“We do get a good number of samples from the store,” he says—but he’s not required to smoke every new product that comes in. “If the terpenes are very similar to another weed that I’ve smoked before, then I pretty much know how to describe what a person is going to get.” Still, he says that while two strains might have similar numbers and profiles, they’ll have completely different smells and flavors, and Mitts won’t tell a customer he’s tried something if he hasn’t.

“I do smoke a good amount,” he says. “That definitely helps with my job.”

By the way: Mitts recommends that you “switch up the ways that you’re smoking” every now and again to keep enjoying weed’s full effect. For example, if you’re using a vape pen, try smoking flower from a hand pipe. “I’m a firm believer that you build up a tolerance to what you’re smoking out of,” he says.

CONOR MITTS’ CURRENT FAVORITE STRAINS

“My favorite flower right now is Miracle Alien Cookies, and Strawberry Banana just has a really nice flavor. For concentrates, I like Skywalker, and a straight indica called Grimmdica that I smoke before I go to bed.”