THESE DAYS, HIGHER EDUCATION HAS A DIFFERENT MEANING

Students Learn Skills to Work in Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

Like other universities, Oaksterdam offers wide-eyed pupils an
enlightening classroom experience to spark their curiosity.

But at Oaksterdam, the homework assignments involve baking the
perfect pot brownie, the lessons teach students how to greet DEA
agents who've just kicked down the front door, and the diploma
confers the status: certified budtender.

In a squatty building in the shadow of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,
marijuana devotees pack classes at the unique trade school that
teaches students how to grow and process marijuana, use the drug in
baked goods and manage medical-marijuana dispensaries.

Ilia Gvozdenovic, chancellor of Oakland-based Oaksterdam University,
describes the nonaccredited school as a much-needed source of
knowledge about marijuana in an age of misunderstanding.

"It's kind of like the Wild West," Gvozdenovic said, alluding to the
confusion and conflict surrounding California state law allowing the
sale of medical marijuana and the federal government's refusal to
acknowledge it.

"To me, the issue is we need better training for folks."

The trade school, which will be holding classes this weekend in Los
Angeles, boasts about 500 graduates since it was founded in Oakland
in November.

Classes began in Los Angeles earlier this year. Students pay $250 for
the weekend course and classes are scheduled through August.

The school sits in a part of downtown Oakland nicknamed "Oaksterdam,"
where pot clubs and cafes line the streets as they do in Amsterdam,
Holland, where smoking marijuana and hashish is tolerated.

Just teaching people how to grow and use marijuana isn't enough to
draw the wrath of the federal government, said Sarah Pullen, a Los
Angeles spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"If they're not distributing, selling or cultivating marijuana, I
would imagine they're not violating any federal laws," she said.

Because of the conflict between California and federal law - and the
vague wording in the state's medical-marijuana law - some counties
and cities have banned medical-marijuana dispensaries from opening,
or have required a strict permit process.

Los Angeles has enacted a moratorium on the shops as it searches for
a way to regulate them.

But with the White House changing hands next year, many
medical-marijuana advocates are hopeful. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama,
the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has indicated his
government would take a hands-off approach to medical marijuana in
states such as California. Arizona Sen. John McCain's would continue
to back federal law and forbid it.

Federal drug authorities have raided more than 50 California
dispensaries in the past two years but have barely nicked the
surface. As one is shut down, others spring up, law enforcement
officials concede.

While Oaksterdam University may be doing nothing technically illegal,
federal anti-drug officials are not happy about its instructors
training new crops of savvy dispensary owners.

"It's too bad they're taking people's money and all they're teaching
them is how to violate federal law," said Rafael Lemaitre, a
spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Actually, I wonder whether the students will remember to even show
up for class at all."

There's a lot to memorize in the world of weed. For one, marijuana
comes in hundreds of varieties.

So would a cancer patient benefit most from some Panama Red or Purple Haze?

Would some Bubba Kush smooth away that anxiety problem?

And then there's the problem of deciding whether to smoke it, eat it
or drink it.

A good budtender would know, Gvozdenovic said.

"It's very similar to a bartender, but for bud," he said. It's like
"a bartender, psychologist and doctor."

Some of the specifics are beyond the weekend survey courses held in
Los Angeles. They won't be hands-on, either - no cannabis plants or
drugs will be allowed in the classroom.

But some of the material might include the science of nurturing a
cannabis plant from a seedling and the art of preparing it for use as
dried buds for smoking, mixing it with butter for cooking, or as a
tincture or topical ointment.

At the end of the class, graduates receive a degree that proves them
competitive candidates for careers at dispensaries, though it isn't required.

Alumni, Oaksterdam claims, can make from $50,000 to $100,000 a year
as a budtender at a medical-marijuana dispensary.

Marijuana activists across the nation see Oaksterdam University as a
historic step toward legitimacy for their movement.

"We're in the midst of an incredible, evolving epoch," said Allen St.
Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The best practices today may put you in
jail tomorrow. ... Five years ago, this would not be possible and
there would not be a need for it."

St. Pierre and others said there's still a long way to go.

"We'd like to see this type of commerce contributing to society just
like any other commerce," said Mason Tvert, executive director for
Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation.

The Colorado-based group, which led to voters in Denver making
marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority, says pot is
safer than booze. And Tvert bemoaned what he sees as a double
standard between the intoxicants.

"If this was a home-brewing class," he said, "no one would really care."