Indopedia All Things Marijuana
As the sweet stench of legal cannabis continues to seep into the mainstream, institutions of higher education have started constructing robust courses around the plant. Aside from fully canna-centric establishments like Oaksterdam University, a number of prestigious colleges and universities, from Harvard University to Ohio State, also offer full-fledged classes on cannabis policy and law.
But few have gone as far as Northern Michigan University, a Marquette-based school that has recently unveiled a four-year medicinal plant chemistry degree focused exclusively on marijuana. The program will cover all the bases of the cannabis industry, including chemistry, biology, botany, horticulture, marketing, and finance. Students will be given a comprehensive crash course on medical pot, learning how to measure and extract the compounds that help treat chronic pain, nausea, seizures, glaucoma, and other illnesses.
According to Mark Paulsen, director of the university’s chemistry department, the first class hosted a dozen students, but he expects that number to blossom over time. The idea for this specialized degree came to associate chemistry professor Brandon Canfield while…
