Seriously considering moving over to cannabis compliance

Ok, so I am seriously considering moving over to cannabis compliance. I know a few of our regulars have dipped their toes into that area, and I'm kind of looking to pick their brains on what I can expect will be different/similar to food manufacturing. 

I have a buddy that grows for himself, and also works for a large industrial grow.   He loves it.   He doesn't smoke or anything, but he makes great money and really enjoys the work, and has really gotten into the science of it.   I don't know how much regulation he faces that would be anything like our end of things.   Mostly it seems from what he's told me, the testing happens after it's grown, and in the products they make.   So the gummi's and things, they do send out for testing.   If you're interested in me asking him anything specific, shoot me a message and I'll be happy to pick his brain for you.

I mainly want to get a feel for the general industry, especially through the eyes of people who are familiar with the food industry. Is it as hectic/stressful as food can be? What are the pressure points? 

There are probably too many variables to get much concrete info, but I kind of want to get a feel of the main differences people have noticed.

Scampi did that for a while in Canada but moved back into food. Maybe send him a message.

It's way more stressful than food IMHO

Everyone is in it for the money, safety is taking a major back seat and corners are being cut in areas that would shut down a food business

The one thing I heard consistently was "people just want to get high, they don't care about xyz"  

Now, this is here in Canada where there was consistent federal regulation, you're stuck with intra state commerce only (or were last time i checked)

Yeah, the $$$ is good, but the expectations are ridiculous, I wasn't getting paid enough to check my integrity at the door 

TimG, feel free to message if you have specific questions/concerns

I don't have experience, but I have the feeling the differing regulatory pressures from various states to federal would make QA in this field a minefield.  As Scampi said it would probably be very, very stressful.  I say this because one day you can be in full compliance, then something changes and BOOM you have to make significant changes to the program.

It seems there are far more unknowns than knowns with it right now....and this is with the operational side, not even getting into the quality and food safety aspect of it all because people just don't know right now.  It would probably be interesting, but you'd probably have a heart attack in less than a year from all the stress.

I mainly want to get a feel for the general industry, especially through the eyes of people who are familiar with the food industry. Is it as hectic/stressful as food can be? What are the pressure points? 

There are probably too many variables to get much concrete info, but I kind of want to get a feel of the main differences people have noticed.

Thanks for the input guys. I have the habit of picking the most broken down places to try to fix them. High risk high reward I guess.

I've only been working in the field for a couple months, but if I can answer anything specifically I will do my best.  The place I'm working only does CBD products currently, we are in a state where THC just became legalized so it is a process too get approval for that; I'm sure there will be quite a few changes once we get approval.  It does have some specific differences from food, although I have been trying to bring them up to standards that are quite similar to food products (NSF standard).  My GMP training from the dairy industry has been useful for sure, as we are considered to have cosmetics and dietary supplements and there is a lot of interchangeability.  I'm pretty much building a quality program for an already existing but small company and it is a really daunting task and not paying as much as I had hoped; I do love the company and people I work with though and feel appreciated.  Definite pros and cons, but I think a lot of places are like that in the industry as regulations change and more folks try to get into the THC side of things; if you can get a job that has a quality program or at least the bones of one I think it would definitely be worth it.

The few places I've been interested in and interviewed for all need someone to write a whole PnP for the quality program. To be fair, that's kind of why I am interested. I like the 'wild wild west' aspect of coming in and working through problems to find sustainable solutions.

I guess the only fear/unknown I have is the work/home life balance. Some industries (Automotive Dealership and certain positions in manufacturing from my experience) want you to put in 60+ hours a week and come to expect that. I'm sure it's location specific, however I've found the industry itself plays a large role in the mores of the individual units.

That is fair, I am sure it is company dependent; my guess is that most places won't require that amount of time but it is definitely dependent on any audits they may need to pass.  I work probably 50 hours a week, my work would be fine with me working less but I don't see how I could possibly get everything done that I need to without the extra time.

Saw some documentaries, seems like a good business, very profitable and enjoyable :)