With the ever-growing awareness around the benefits of cannabis and a sudden surge in demand for marijuana growers and cultivators, marijuana courses have become the talk of the town in Illinois. (in fact, in most of the legal states.)
As a result, many colleges and universities are coming up with innovative courses, where students get a more hands-on approach (despite the drug being federally illegal) rather than just theoretical knowledge about the cannabinoids and methods of cultivation.
“I receive almost daily inquiries about the school’s cannabis program, and cultivators also call looking for students with expertise,” said Karen Midden, interim Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIU).
SIU is looking at the feasibility of combining existing classes with a number of marijuana-oriented courses. However, in order to create an effective 30-credit hour cannabis certification program, the university needs a few months.
“People think it’s some magical thing you have to learn to grow marijuana. However, in reality, the basic skills needed to operate any greenhouse can be applied to cultivating cannabis in a greenhouse,” Midden was quoted as saying by WQAD.
Oakton Community College in Des Plaines is another institute that announced last month that it was launching a program to train students in working with medical marijuana patients.
As more and more patients are enrolling in the state’s medical marijuana program, numerous cultivators are expanding their production facilities; as a result, a number of vacant positions need to be filled at the earliest, as stats say that nearly 27,000 patients enrolled in the same last year.
As Gov. J. B. Pritzker looks to legalize adult-use marijuana, odds are high that there may be a further surge in demand for ‘specialists’.
In fact, the work is already in progress and the state legislators are hoping to get a recreational bill passed by the month of June.
