Cannabis has long been used for hemp fibre, for hemp oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a recreational drug. Industrial hemp products are made from cannabis plants selected to produce an abundance of fiber
According to recent reports, cannabis is a multi-billion pound industry across the pond, with increasing numbers of states seeking to legalize it usage.
And as such, we’re anticipating an explosive trend of innovative products and companies popping up – keeping the US economy afloat with green dollar bills.
So it makes sense that as weed increasingly seeks to pervade American life, that it gets some representation in academia.
More so, several universities across the states are starting to offer the classes in the hope of delving deeper into the legal and biological ramifications of cannabis use.
Recently, according to Forbes, higher institutions like the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Ohio State University and the University of California, Davis (ofc) are offering a syllabus on the ‘biology and use of marijuana as well as legal issues around it’.
But if you think that this just some fun extracurricular class, think again. Students can choose whether to earn credits towards their final degrees from these weed seminars or not.
At the Vermont, students can study ‘Medical Cannabis’ at graduate level – a programme that focuses on Cannabis chemistry, its effects and the emerging therapeutic uses – alongside the ‘political and socio-economic influences on marijuana laws’.
While the universities don’t prove weed for the classes, students can organise their own field trips to local dispensaries if they wish.
‘Educating people about the science of cannabis and the legal issues surrounding it allows people to enter the industry in a more legitimate way, equipped with real data and real knowledge, not myths,’ cannabis industry consultant Shannon Vetto tells Forbes.
America has two actual cannabis colleges – the THC University and the Cannabis Training University, but the fact that standard academic institutions are beginning to recognise the value in researching and teaching about the herb goes even further to legitimising the industry.