AT THIS SCHOOL, IT'S MARIJUANA IN EVERY CLASS

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- At most colleges, marijuana is very much an
extracurricular matter. But at Med Grow Cannabis College, marijuana
is the curriculum: the history, the horticulture and the legal
how-to's of Michigan's new medical marijuana program.

"This state needs jobs, and we think medical marijuana can stimulate
the state economy with hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars,"
said Nick Tennant, the 24-year-old founder of the college, which is
actually a burgeoning business (no baccalaureates here) operating
from a few bare-bones rooms in a Detroit suburb.

The six-week, $485 primer on medical marijuana is a cross between an
agricultural extension class covering the growing cycle, nutrients
and light requirements ("It's harvest time when half the trichomes
have turned amber and half are white") and a gathering of serious
potheads, sharing stories of their best highs ("Smoke that and you
are ... medicated!").

The only required reading: "Marijuana Horticulture: The
Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible" by Jorge Cervantes.

Even though the business of growing medical marijuana is legal under
Michigan's new law, there is enough nervousness about the enterprise
that most students at a recent class did not want their names or
photographs used. An instructor also asked not to be identified.

"My wife works for the government," one student said, "and I told my
mother-in-law I was going to a small-business class."

While California's medical marijuana program, the country's oldest,
is now big business, with hundreds of dispensaries in Los Angeles
alone, the Michigan program, which started in April, is more
representative of what is happening in other states that have
legalized medical marijuana.

Under the Michigan law, patients whose doctors certify their medical
need for marijuana can grow up to 12 cannabis plants themselves or
name a "caregiver" who will grow the plants and sell the product.
Anyone over 21 with no felony drug convictions can be a caregiver for
up to five patients. So far, the Department of Community Health has
registered about 5,800 patients and 2,400 caregivers.

For Mr. Tennant, who is certified as both a caregiver and a patient
- -- he said he has stomach problems and anxiety -- Med Grow replaces
the auto detailing business he started straight out of high school,
only to see it founder when the economy contracted. Med Grow began
offering its course in September, with new classes starting every month.

On a recent Tuesday, two teachers led a four-hour class, starting
with Todd Alton, a botanist who provided no tasting samples as he
talked the students through a list of cannabis recipes, including
crockpot cannabutter, chocolate canna-ganache and greenies (the
cannabis alternative to brownies).

The second instructor, who would not give his name, took the class
through the growing cycle, the harvest and the curing techniques to
increase marijuana's potency.

Mr. Tennant said he saw the school as the hub of a larger business
that will sell supplies to its graduate medical marijuana growers,
offer workshops and provide a network for both patient and caregiver
referrals. Already, Med Grow is a gathering place for those
interested in medical marijuana. The whiteboard in the reception room
lists names and numbers of several patients looking for caregivers,
and a caregiver looking for patients.

The students are a diverse group: white and black, some in their 20s,
some much older, some employed, some not. Some keep their class
attendance, and their growing plans, close to the chest.

"I've just told a couple of people I can trust," said Jeffery Butler,
27. "It's a business opportunity, but some people are still going to
look at you funny. But I'm going to do it anyway."

Scott Austin, an unemployed 41-year-old student, said he and two
partners were planning to go into medical marijuana together.

"I never smoked marijuana in my life," he said. "I heard about this
at a business expo a couple of months ago."

Because the Michigan program is so new, gray areas in the law have
not been tested, creating real concern for some students. For
example, it is not legal to start growing marijuana before being
officially named a caregiver to a certified patient, but patients who
are sick, certified and ready to buy marijuana generally do not want
to wait through the months of the growing cycle until a crop is
ready. So for the time being, coordinating entry into the business
feels to some like a kind of Catch-22.

Students say they are getting all kinds of extra help and ideas from
going to class.

"I want to learn all the little tricks, everything I can," said Sue
Maxwell, a student who drives each week from her home four hours
north of Detroit. "It's a big investment, and I want to do it right."

Ms. Maxwell, who works at a bakery, is already a caregiver -- in the
old, nondrug sense of the word -- to a few older people for whom she
thinks medical marijuana might be a real boon.

"I fix their meals, and I help with housekeeping," Ms. Maxwell said.
"I have an 85-year-old lady who has no appetite. I don't know if
she'd have any interest in medical marijuana, but I bet it would help her."

Ms. Maxwell said her plan to grow marijuana was slow in hatching.

"We were talking at the bakery all summer," she said. "Just joking
around, I said: 'I'm going to grow medical marijuana. I'm a gardener,
I've always dreamed of having a greenhouse, I think it would be
great.' And then I suddenly thought, hey, I really am going to grow
medical marijuana."