MEDICAL MARIJUANA INSPIRES 'CANNABIS COLLEGES'

Students Learn How to Grow, Distribute Plant for Legal Use

States with laws permitting the use of medicinal marijuana are seeing
an interesting development in the education field -- "cannabis
colleges" and universities offering courses on the history, growth
and use of the plant.

One such example is MedGrow Cannabis College in Southfield, Mich.,
outside of Detroit, founded last April by 24-year-old Nick Tennant.
It is a six-week, $485 primer on medical marijuana with only one
required reading: "Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical
Grower's Bible" by Jorge Cervantes, according to the college's website.

Oaksterdam University is another school in California that teaches
those who enroll how to grow medicinal marijuana and better
administer it to patients. Salwa Ibrahim, Oaksterdam spokesperson,
said some of the classes offered emphasize politics, legal issues,
extraction of the marijuana plant and glass blowing.

These classes are not specifically aimed toward health care
professionals -- they are not only for people curious about the
politics and history of medicinal marijuana, but for the caretakers
who would benefit from knowing how to grow a crop for their patients
to use, Ibrahim said.

In the 12 states where medicinal marijuana is legal, a patient who
has been prescribed it can either grow it themselves or have a
caretaker grow it for them.

In a statement by California Attorney General Edmund Brown outlining
the provisions of the medicinal marijuana law, a caregiver must be
responsible for other aspects of their patient's health and not just
be a supplier of the drug.

Gary Storck, co-founder of the Madison branch for the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said growing marijuana
inside can ruin the crop, and schools like Oaksterdam and MedGrow
teach their students how to successfully grow a crop.

"Students learn how provide methods of ingestion. As long as you
follow state laws, you can be a caregiver," Ibrahim said.

The specialized products and methods of ingestion that are being
taught in cannabis colleges would create the need for new small
businesses and stimulate the economy, Storck said.

Some of the illnesses medicinal marijuana can alleviate include
chronic pain, nausea, glaucoma and some allergies.

Oaksterdam has given a certificate of completion, after the 13-week
seminar, to approximately 5,500 graduates since the college's opening
in 2007. The certificate sets a standard in the relatively
unregulated industry of medicinal marijuana.

They now have a new facility to expand class sizes, Ibrahim said.
While they are now not the only such college in the country, they
claim to be the first and consider themselves "the Harvard" of
cannabis colleges.

"Once the [medicinal marijuana] law is passed [in Wisconsin] there
will be a need for this type of education," Storck said.

Storck added MedGrow Cannabis College has expressed interest in
taking some of its classes on the road to Madison as an exposition to
showcase its work.