It might be the best job in journalism but deadlines could prove a problem.

An alternative Denver newspaper, Westword, is advertising for a reviewer to survey Colorado's marijuana dispensaries and their products amid a boom in the sale of dope as a medical treatment.

The writer of the Mile Highs and Lows column will offer insights not only into the best decor - do you want the hippy experience or the clinical? - but will also offer an opinion on more than a dozen kinds of marijuana, from White Widow to Afghan Gold Seal, that come at up to $130 (£78) an ounce.

The reviewer's post was proposed by a Westword journalist, Joel Warner, who has written about Colorado's medical marijuana industry for several years. He noticed a disparity in the places selling pot.

"Some really looked like your college drug dealer's dorm room. You know, Bob Marley posters on the wall and big marijuana leaf posters," Warner said. "But then some were so fancy, like dentist's offices. They had bubbling aquariums in the lobby and were so clean. I thought, somebody needs to review these. Somebody needs to tell people what these places are like."

Westword has received applications from more than 120 prospective reviewers, some of whom have offered to work for free - presumably with expenses paid. "Marijuana isn't just important to me, it is my life," wrote one enthusiastic applicant.

But there is a catch. Whoever gets the job has to be able to buy marijuana legally for medical reasons.

Marijuana is illegal under US federal law but has been unbanned in some states for medical use as a prescription drug. Amid growing acceptance of dope smoking as a pain reliever, the Obama administration this week instructed the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies not to raid marijuana dispensaries that are legal under state law or arrest their customers.

That is an important shift. Until now, while local and state police ignored the dispensaries, the DEA could swoop at any time and often did.

California was the first state to approve medical marijuana dispensaries in 1996 but there has been a real boom in recent years. The number in Los Angeles alone has gone from four in 2005 to about 800 today. Colorado has more than 100.