Rohnert Park, California’s Sonoma State University is expanding their extended education cannabis industry classes, which are focused on a variety of subjects including direct-to-consumer marketing and medicinal uses of cannabis, the Press-Democrat reports. The university’s School of Extended and International education held its first seminar in March, called “Medical Cannabis: a Clinical Focus,” which was attended by 100 students.
The college’s June seminar, which cost $99 and offered students certificates and extended learning credits, focused on emerging local and state regulations. The next seminar, planned for October, focuses on finance and investing and will be led by investment firms CannaAngels and Poseidon Asset Management LLC. The class is the first internally developed by the college.
Robert Eyler, School of Extended and International Education dean, said that the college is unable to run classes “explicitly about the supply chain” due to cannabis’ federal status as a Schedule I substance, and doing so could put the school at risk of losing federal funding.
“We can’t do classes on entrepreneurship, distribution, growing or selling,” he said in the report. “What we can do are seminars on all the topics around those topics.”
The university is currently discussing a 16-week course focused on cannabis use for elderly patients that they are hoping to develop with Dr. Jeffrey Hergenrather, founding member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians. That course would require science prerequisites to enroll.
Several higher education institutions in the U.S. have rolled out cannabis-centric course offerings, including The University of California at Davis, and the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. The City College of San Francisco announced earlier this year that they plan on adding a cannabis industry course to their curriculum.