Legal weed gets surprising foothold: Cannabis courses in higher ed

The program at CSUEB is just the most recent sign that the industry has reached a new level of legitimacy in a state that legalized the cultivation, possession and use of marijuana seven years ago.

Cal State East Bay partnered with Green Flower, a training program built for cannabis industry professionals, to offer an online certification program that offers studies in subfields such as agriculture and health. The program also offers a sector-specific curriculum, including compliance and business risk management.

Green Flower partnered with universities nationwide to offer cannabis education courses, including Syracuse University in upstate New York and schools in less marijuana-

friendly territory, such as Louisiana State University.

But since Max Simon started Green Flower in 2014, he has been looking for a partner in Northern California, a place many consider the epicenter of the weed world.

“It took us time to find a school here that was willing to play a leadership role in developing this industry that has, historically, a stigma attached to it,” Simon told The Examiner.

The higher-education landscape tends to be more conservative by nature, he added, but there’s no denying the exponential growth the industry has seen in the last decade. There are more than 80,000 workers in the California cannabis industry today, in a market valued at more than $2.2 billion.

That wasn’t always the case. Weed was illegal in California until 2016, and drug charges for possessing, growing and selling marijuana disproportionately impacted communities of color.

Equity and inclusion among top cannabis executives remain issues today. Supernova Women, an Oakland-based nonprofit that advocates for equity in the industry, released a report last year that found only 4% of industry workers are Black. The nonprofit worked with Oakland to create the industry’s first social-equity program in the country.

Amber Senter, executive director of Supernova Women, has worked in the industry for a decade in various roles, from marketing to dispensary supervision. She describes it as “still fairly new” but a tough one to break into despite growing interest and demand.

“You have to have a lot of grit” to succeed, she told The Examiner.

“This industry is tough,” she said. “And even though it’s fun, it’s a lot of hard work.”

Her nonprofit worked to establish a social-equity program in San Francisco, which SoMa native Rudy Corpuz Jr. calls crucial for business owners like himself.

Corpuz went from being incarcerated for marijuana possession to opening a dispensary in SoMa earlier this year through the Stiiizy franchise. He has been a vocal advocate for pot legalization and recreational marijuana use since the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016.

He is now a born-and-bred San Francisco native with roots in the local cannabis industry. But Corpuz agrees it’s a tough one to break into, especially with rich, mostly white men “parachuting into” the industry in the early days of legalization.

“They weren’t having people from the community be involved,” he told The Examiner.

Then, in September 2017, former San Francisco mayor Ed Lee tapped into marijuana to promote equity among business owners and invited Corpuz to consider joining the movement. Corpuz credits Mayor London Breed with carrying that torch by introducing numerous legislation to promote diversity, equity and support for business owners such as himself.

“That allowed people like myself, and the communities that was affected by the war on drugs, to learn more,” he said.

Overpolicing, a history of racism and stigma surrounding the drug created barriers for people of color and formerly incarcerated people who were interested in getting into the market. While there is still work to be done, the tides today are shifting.

Senter and Simon said they are hopeful that more certification programs become available for Bay Area adults.

Both said they entered the industry for the same reason: They started as patients and firmly stand by the product’s medicinal benefits. Senter also acknowledged how far California has come from criminalization to a booming market.

“You can certainly come into this industry, get a job, and be able to provide for your family — which is what we wanted to see,” she said. “We want people to stop going to jail for weed and for this to be seen as a respectable industry.”

And while the industry is booming, it is now oversaturated — dispensaries are closing in San Francisco due to burglaries, low foot traffic and the still-massive black market.

Young people who are hoping to get into the business must navigate these dynamic complexities. Senter and Corpuz — neither of whom studied to be in this space — said that’s why they see the value in budding programs such as that at CSUEB.

“This is a win-win situation for anybody who wants to learn about the industry but also just wants to learn about the history of marijuana, period,” Corpuz said.

While Cal State East Bay is the first in Northern California to open the door to cannabis education, Simon said he hopes it won’t be the last.

“When we started in 2014, every school I talked to laughed me out of the room,” he said. “And now we have top institutions in the country calling us to see how they can get involved in offering cannabis education.”

Nearly everyone in the industry looks toward federal legalization as the next big step.If federal laws around cannabis are lifted, the industry would organically swell, and the demand for skilled workers would increase.

Simon said he feels a real sea change is taking place. In August, federal health officials recommended reclassifying the drug. It will still take some time for the Drug Enforcement Agency to make a decision — and even if it is reclassified, marijuana would still be a controlled substance subject to federal rules and regulations.

Still, the news makes industry experts hopeful. For Simon, it signals a major step toward national legalization.

“The last remaining domino to fall here is the federal government, and it feels dangerously close to a real seismic shift,” he said.

Senter, too, sees endless possibilities.

“We’re still at the beginning of this legalization story,” she said.