Cannabis EDU: Higher Education - Branding Bud Live Episode 22
THE SUMMARY
While cannabis acceptance and legalization across many U.S. states has increased, so has the number of colleges & universities offering cannabis courses and degrees, ranging from cannabis chemistry all the way through to cannabis production.
THE CO-HOSTS
David Paleschuck, Adriana Hemans
THE SPECIAL GUEST
Marianne Cursetjee, Compliance Professor, LIM College & CEO Alibi Cannabis
Michael Zaytsev, Cannabis Academic Director, LIM College
THE TRANSCRIPT
David Paleschuck
Welcome to Branding Bud Live, the live stream that’s 100% THC and 0% WTF. Every week we speak with business people about the business of cannabis. I’m David Paleschuck, founder of Branding Bud Consulting Group and author of the first book on cannabis branding. I’m joined by my co-host Adriana Hemans, a Marketing executive with over 8 years in the cannabis space. Hi Adriana!
Adriana Hemans
Hi David. Thank you for that intro. I’m so excited to co-host the show with you. We’re bringing amazing guests from across the cannabis ecosystem to share their perspectives. My favorite thing about Branding Bud Live is that we focus on building community - and we encourage audience participation. It’s not just about us talking, it’s about all of us building something together. So feel free to drop your questions and/or opinions in the chat, and we’ll share them too.
David Paleschuck
Thank you, Adriana. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We have a lot of hot topics to get into today. Today, we’ll be talking about “Cannabis EDU: Higher Education”. While cannabis acceptance and legalization across many U.S. states has increased, so has the number of colleges & universities offering cannabis courses and degrees, ranging from cannabis chemistry all the way through to cannabis production. Some of the topics we addressed are:
Why the rise in cannabis education?
How will academic participation add to the credibility of the industry?
Are degrees required to ensure consistent industry knowledge transfer?
Our guests today are Michael Zaytsev, Cannabis Program Director at LIM College, and Compliance Professor Marianne Cursetjee, MBA, CEO of Alibi Cannabis. I’m excited to have them on the show today.
Adriana Hemans
Me too! Let’s welcome them onto the show. Hi, Michael & Marianne!
Marianne Cursetjee
So excited to be here in chat with all of you?
Adriana Hemans
Awesome. We're really excited. We have a lot to cover today. So let's just jump in. And let's talk about the current landscape of cannabis education. Starting with you, Michael.
Michael Zaytsev
Yeah, so first of all, thank you so much for having me, I'm excited to have this conversation. The landscape is evolving. It's like a lot of things in cannabis. It's on the cutting edge. You know, this is fairly new to higher ed. And especially for someone like me, who spent about the last decade in cannabis, higher ed is certainly a different world altogether. From cannabis, it's a little more, maybe even a lot more conservative than the cannabis space. It's also highly regulated. There's only a handful of schools in the world that are really offering any kind of in depth cannabis education, I anticipate that 5 to 10 years out, that will look very different. But right now it's a really exciting and fulfilling place to be.
Adriana Hemans
That's awesome. I should mention too, that my, my mom, Caroline Downing, teaches at a college in upstate New York called SUNY Potsdam. And they have a cannabis business program, through their through the business school, which I've spoken at a couple of times. And this was something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. So it's really exciting to see not only that cannabis has kind of like broken into higher ed, but also that it's really gaining a lot of momentum, and you're starting to see people really embrace the curriculum.
David Paleschuck
Yeah, that's pretty interesting. And Cheryl, also read, she's writing her dissertation at USC on women entrepreneurship in the cannabis space. So it's, it's pretty exciting in terms of what's going on. But as we talk about that, Marianne, what are the key? Sorry, what are the key challenges that educators face, in particular, related to cannabis teaching cannabis related courses?
Marianne Cursetjee
That's a really great question, David. And so if you don't come from education as I don't, it was really part really interesting to have the curtains open to the behind the scenes when I was developing my course. And so there's the whole process, of course development. So you first have to figure out what you're going to be teaching and get that approved. And then there's the actual teaching of it. And that takes time. And as Michael mentioned, this industry is evolving really, really rapidly. So what I found in doing the compliance course, is that I would put something out as part of the curriculum, but then six months later, it would already be inaccurate, because rules had changed, or something had changed. And so the challenge for me and developing the compliance course specifically, was trying to make it specific enough so that students would get some actual knowledge and some actual information. And yet also make it generic enough so that it would be a little bit evergreen. I don't think in cannabis, there's anything that is actually evergreen he had but have it lasts more than six months. So have it be something that would be valid for a while. I mean, even in Oregon, rules are changing so quickly, you know, we might say something this month, and then next month is different. So it's very challenging to stay current.
David Paleschuck
That's interesting. I never thought we'd be talking about keeping the compliance course compliant. That's, intriguing! I find to in the marketing space teaching in the marketing class that there's the students are online in different locations and, and they bring different perspectives to the same topic, because the rules are different. There's always lots of clarifying and I'm sort of digging into what was the rule in New Mexico What was the rule? In one of the states where the students are, and they're trying to write a business or marketing plan around it.
Adriana Hemans
And because of that complexity, especially in compliance, which we know is really challenging. It's really just begging for people to take the time to educate themselves. And I think also a component is figuring out how they can stay current right, with things changing so quickly, like what are the resources? And how do they stay updated? Question for you, Michael, have you seen a shift in the way academia is embracing cannabis? What are you seeing in that area?
Michael Zaytsev
Yeah, I think it's very, very, very slow. That shift is certainly happening. And there's progressives, institutions like LIM College that have decided to offer, you know, full on degree programs, and really embrace the need in the industry to train people for the next, you know, hundreds of 1000s of jobs that are coming. But, you know, I can share a story of I was speaking with someone, just earlier this week, who was working with a really large institution in New York City, where they were discussing, you know, should we get into the old cannabis, education space, and, you know, big higher ed institution, and they surveyed their existing faculty, and 80% of the existing faculty said, do not do this, stay away from this, we want nothing to do with this. So you know, and again, this was a fairly large New York City institution that I would have imagined would be a lot more open minded and progressive, and so on. But for whatever reason, you know, I wasn't there. I don't know the details, but 80% of the faculty, I was quite surprised to hear that there, there was that much opposition to it. And so, you know, there's certainly still a huge stigma against cannabis, generally. And I think that's, you know, that's present in higher ed. And that's why only a handful of schools have really gotten into this space in a meaningful way. From my perspective, though, there's a lot of fear.
Adriana Hemans
I'm really surprised to hear you say that there was that much opposition, that's really interesting, because you're thinking about the landscape of higher ed, overall enrollment is down in a lot of places. And you would think that people would embrace a sector and industry that has so much job creation and growth.
Michael Zaytsev
Yeah, and on top of that, I would just say, at least from my experience, working with the students at LIM College, you know, the students are really passionate, they want to learn about this stuff, I have a handful of students who were not planning on going to college at all. And then when they discover that there was a cannabis program, and they could get a degree in the business of cannabis, they were like, Okay, I'll give college a try. So, you know, I think it's a huge missed opportunity for some of these institutions that are maybe afraid to, to dip their toe or dive in to, to cannabis education, because I think the current generation really wants to learn about it so let'stalk about that for a moment.
David Paleschuck
And the hesitancy behind that. Marianne, I'll throw this out to you. The first thing that comes to mind is if an institution is hesitant about allowing a cannabis course or a program to come, my thought is, how does that cannabis course integrate into their other programs like entrepreneurship, or social justice, or public policy or some of the other things that their institution is either well entrenched in or stands for? To Michael's point, how does that integration of cannabis come into these institutions and sort of infiltrate their way into and connect other parts of the institution that are not just the cannabis?
Marianne Cursetjee
I think it's interesting to think about higher education and how it whether it so you have activist professors, you know, as we've seen, broadly speaking, our you know, society we've had protests at schools, over guests lectures, you know, justified or not, you know, people have the right to speak their mind or you have, you have so you have this, this sense of activism that I think is very much part of the American culture. And then you also have this, this idea that education needs to be written elective of our society. So I think that we need to have a balance of are we pushing forward? And should higher education be the place that is driving us forward? Or should it? Should it be more conservative and wait for society to catch up? And I don't have the answer. I'm not the expert on that. But I think I think that cannabis is a perfect example of that. Because there are certainly, you know, I'm in the industry, this is what I do every day, very passionate about the medical benefits and, and, and the benefit that cannabis can bring to society. But, you know, like Michael said, the society at large is not there yet. So I don't know what the appropriate role of higher ed is in driving that conversation. But I think that space needs to be available so that students can learn and, and, and have it been actual knowledge, not just this, there's a phrase that's used often in the industry called bro science. And it's, it's how a lot of legacy growers and legacy people who've been in the industry for a long time having learned stuff, they're like, Oh, my dad told me that or my brother told me that, so it must be true. And I think that higher ed helps us become more grounded in science and facts and actual data. And I think that's what will drive the industry forward and help it become more mainstream.
Adriana Hemans
I really love that point that you just made about tribal knowledge sort of becoming the standard just because we don't have you know, maybe enough educational resources to teach people what the facts are teach them how to uncover scientific evidence and use that in their brand building or their product development. So yeah, that's really exciting to sort of see how this can support the evolution of the industry and a place for people to share knowledge and maybe even correct some things that they thought were true that are actually not true. I want to call out a comment from Jason Trembley. Cannabis isn't even a category for search in LinkedIn. The cannabis industry is growing and the legacy systems still need to catch up. Thanks for your comment, Jason. Yeah, that's, that's a great point, because we're talking about higher ed, but it's also sort of rampant the stigma and like, it's here that it's here. It's already operating. Let's try to support what already exists.
David Paleschuck
It's interesting, in terms of how compliance plays into it, you know, it's just one sort of role. Maryann, we've been talking about education, from the educator, or maybe the college perspective, or the overall, let's just drop down to a student's, you know, perspective. How can higher education has helped prepare students that want to come into the industry?
Marianne Cursetjee
There are so many jobs. You know, Adriana, I think you mentioned earlier, like the number of job Korea, the number of jobs that are going to be created through this industry and that have been created. There are so many things that people can do in the industry, and they're not even cannabis specific. So we have just thinking about my farm, we have H vac, so heating, heating, you know, air conditioning experts, so mechanical, you know, it's a trade school thing, we have electricians, you have branding people, you know, queue David, we also have packaging, design, and marketing, search engine website, every single job, legal attorney, you could just go on and on every single job that exists, could be applicable to cannabis in some shape. So it's, to me it's, it's about finding, let's say you want to be an accountant. So you go get your accounting degree, and you're going to have a class on nonprofit accounting, well, then now maybe you'll have a class on cannabis accounting. So it's, it's an integration both of cannabis into existing programs, as well as just acknowledging that it exists on its own.
Adriana Hemans
Right, because we all know, when you're searching for a job, having a specialization really sets you apart from all the other candidates.
David Paleschuck
The number one question I’m asked, “Is how can I get into the industry? My response is always, “What's your skill set and core competency? What have you done all your life that you could leverage into the industry? And Maryanne, to your point, you know, it's people bring people bring basically the skill set, and it's the stronger people in the industry that have really built their skills outside and then have the knowledge of cannabis. And it's the, it's the one plus one equals three, it's not just is this experience, it's not just cannabis experience, it's a combination of the two. And that's really important.
Along those lines, we always have our audience participation. And we're always super excited about that. So get ready audience, because here comes our first question. So now we're talking about where people come from as they enter into the industry, and what is the industry top “feeder”, if you will? Here I call it a talent feeder.
Where do people come from? You know, as they enter the industry most Is it A. Retail? Is it B. Manufacturing? Is it C. Healthcare? Or is it D. Food Service? Where do you think most of the folks coming into the industry are coming from? That's really the question. Audience now it's your chance to shine.
Adriana Hemans
And for some context, this is from the banks report and analysis of the cannabis professional report from September 2022.
Marianne Cursetjee
Well, I'm going to I'm going to give an answer. And I'll give a reason. I don't know if I'm right. But my answer is retail. And my reasoning is because there are a lot of budtender jobs, and thinking about entry-level, ways for people to get in the industry being a budtender is I think, the number one, and that's a retail job.
David Paleschuck
Right. Michael, what do you think?
Michael Zaytsev
I agree. And I'll just point out that, you know, I think for a long time, we've had this dynamic of where I am companies wondering, Where do I find people? Where do I find people that have the skill set, the business knowledge, and also the cannabis knowledge? And I think that's been a challenge that I've heard from employers and companies that I've worked with over the years. And so I think it's really important for higher ed institutions like Li M, to step in and educate the next generation so that these employers can focus on doing business and they don't have to worry about training people for a year and teaching them the basics of cannabis and, and all this stuff. Because, you know, until recently, you couldn't really get that anywhere. So I, I hope that 510 years from now, the answer will be, you know, from undergraduate degree programs.
David Paleschuck
Congratulations, Retail. And you know, it's funny when I think about my first job outside of delivering paper, my first job was working at Macy's. So I could have taken those over the counter skills and brought them to a dispensary near me. That's interesting.
Adriana Hemans
I didn't know you worked at Macy's, David.
David Paleschuck
Yeah, that's a secret.
Adriana Hemans
I spilled the beans, I guess. I'm sure. So we were just talking a little bit. about education and sort of tribal knowledge and how we can replace tribal knowledge with a little bit more formalized processes. And, and my question is from Michael, what kind of research is currently being conducted on the effects of cannabis on physical and mental health? And how are these findings being integrated into educational programs?
Michael Zaytsev
Yeah, wow, great question. And I'll just say I don't think we necessarily need to replace the tribal knowledge, I think we need to build upon it and, and ultimately, standardize so that, you know, a few years from now, when the industry is more mature, you know, consumers, and especially medical patients can feel confident and safe, consuming cannabis and knowing that wherever it was manufactured or grown or whatnot, that, you know, it's been done to a standard that is acceptable and safe and not bro science, as Maryann mentioned. But as far as research, you know, I think there's just so much happening, there's, it's almost impossible to keep up. You know, certainly there's new and new studies coming out every day about the potential harms and the potential healing benefits of cannabis use. I think, especially with the proliferation of concentrates and extracts and all these relatively newer, you know, cannabinoids, the sort of a question that came up in class yesterday was, you know, what's the deal with this? THC and these synthetic hemp, cannabinoid derivatives, you know, Is this safe or isn't not safe. And, you know, a lot of this stuff is so new that we haven't even had the chance to research it. And not to mention all of the restrictions on research, given the federal schedule, on status. But we've seen in recent years that the, the DEA has made research more accessible, and they've expanded the number of farms and sources that could contribute to research. And there's certainly more and more universities doing research on the hemp side of things on the medical side of things. You know, Li M is not a research institution. So it's not exactly in my wheelhouse. But I do know that we're still just at the tip of the iceberg of really putting quality science behind the plant, both from the health standpoint, but also from, you know, the types of products we could develop in the application. So I think 10 to 20 years from now we'll have, you know, an order of magnitude of more understanding of the endocannabinoid system and, and how to effectively use the plant. But right now, there's much more that we don't know that we do know.
David Paleschuck
We should call out actually that LIM College, while it's more of the business of cannabis, you know, there are other schools that are focused on pharmacy on the pharmaceutical aspects of cannabis. There are other schools that are focused on the cultivation or the cultural side of things. So there are quite a number of different programs. And, you know, just to call out what Cameron said earlier about totally being relevant to the cultivation side of the industry. There are there are absolutely schools that also focus on that. So we might not have to have the folks that focus on that, although certainly, certainly, Marianne, you can, you could probably speak as well to cultivation as you could to compliance. But yeah, there are there are multiple schools, and when they say multiple, there are lots of schools and we'll get to something later on. We'll talk about how many schools there are, but it's important to note them, you know, as many aspects as there are in life, there's probably aspects touching the cannabis industry, whether it's cultivation, science, marketing, branding, business, sales and retail, I think it's all it's all pretty, pretty amazing. MaryAnne. I'm curious about something. I taught a course, of course, which was a graduate school course on ethical design, and it was a design course, but it's spoke to the ethics of what we were designing and what we were creating. And, and that could range anything from, or was the product we were developing, used or manufactured by child labor. Or were we using something that wasn't have disposable or, you know, reusable or recyclable? You know, so we were trying to bring ethics into design, how to ethics fall into the cannabis space? And are there any, you know, any things that that you as an educator in the cannabis space need to think about related to ethics?
Marianne Cursetjee
I think this is a really interesting question that we probably don't have time to delve in thoroughly. How many hours do you have today, but you brought up packaging design? And there's, that's, that's a really good example of ways that the industry can, can help sit, you know, with, save the planet, and recycling and all of that. But to me, the ethics in the business are really nuanced and really challenging. Because if you look at like people who have been in the industry for, you know, since the legacy days, they're used to doing things in the shadows, and we want to bring that, like I will, I'll just say I, because I would not want to assume that everybody does. But, you know, to me, it seems like it would be good to bring everybody into the regulated market. But that is really, really challenging. And there are a lot of roadblocks to that. And so people who are used to operating in the shadows have a certain way of doing things. And so if so, for example, today, you could go down to any street in New York, go down to a bodega and find weed that was grown in California. Now, that is totally illegal. And there's lots of things, lots of pieces along that chain that have broken down to cause that. So it's not casting aspersions on any one person or entity or anything. But it's just an example of, of this sort of gray market shadow environment that exists. And talking about the ethics of that compared to the ethics of somebody who's trying to operate 100% regulated business, it's, it's a really interesting dynamic. And the industry has a long ways to go to reconcile both of those. So it would be nice if the gray market would go away. But the flip side of that is that there are also examples of regulators that have come down and find and cause problems for totally compliant businesses for you know, things that are very minor and don't cause any problems at all. So I think regulators need to have the right and appropriate oversight. And the gray market needs to come into the regulated market. But that's we're not there yet. And it's a long way from happening. And it's a very complex issue.
Michael Zaytsev
It's certainly something that I cover in the intro to cannabis course with, with all the undergrads it's a big part of my focus, actually, is to get them thinking about these issues, which there's certainly no shortage of in the business of cannabis. But I think it's absolutely critical to you know, I don't expect them to come up with the answers or for anyone to really have the answers, but I think it's critical to, to address the questions and have those tough debates and conversations, because, you know, we're building it as we go this industry and I think if we don't have those hard conversations and do that soul searching upfront, then we might not fulfill the promise of, of the industry that I believe a lot of the advocacy community had in mind when, when fighting for reform and legalization and safe access and, and all of these things.
David Paleschuck
I was just going to say it's so interesting, as we're talking about this, and is the question about ethics, you know, and then back in into the college, you know, I mean, in some ways, we almost have our answer there, maybe why 80% of the institution you heard about, you know, we're dragging their feet, because as soon as, as soon as we start to talk about cannabis and ethics, you know, why shouldn't the law school, if you will, you know, be participating in that conversation? And, quite frankly, how could they not be participating in that conference conversation? So, it seems that the integration of cannabis not only is a vertical program of courses now being offered, but it should start seeping horizontally into the institutions that are teaching that vertical. So, you know, all of the other sister majors and means of study start to understand and relate to cannabis as well.
Adriana Hemans
The question of ethics is so, so relevant to this conversation about out higher education, because it's a perfect example of why it doesn't make sense to just draw a line in the sand and say, the legal market is what we support and the legacy market just needs to go away. Because if you're looking at it from the perspective of looking at the workforce, and you want to hire people, and you want people who have experience in cultivation, where does that experience come from? Do you know what I mean? They had to start out in a, you know, operating sort of underground. So we, we obviously need these people and we need their experience. So it doesn't make sense to like, you know, draw a line in the sand basically. So it's a really, it's a complicated question. But it's exciting to see that we'll have, you know, cultivation programs, opening up and sharing that knowledge with people who want to want to good start in the industry, but don't necessarily have the background. I remember hiring people who had a lot of cannabis experience, but they didn't list it on their resume, because they you know, we're doing things illegally. So some of that experience sort of gets washed away, which is too bad. So hopefully, we'll start to come out of the shadows more and embrace people with that, you know, more storied history, I guess you could say.
David Paleschuck
And I see we've got a number of questions and comments. By the way, we're going to take questions at the end as well. So if people have any questions, once we get through some of our questions, some of the topics will give will allow you to answer ask questions and are getting answered them. Shout out to Israel happy Passover to Israel, by the way, and other people around the world, not just to Israel. But those that and Easter's coming up this weekend, too. Now I'm giving all religious happy to everybody.
Adriana Hemans
That's a perfect segue to go into our next audience participation. down the rabbit hole. Okay, so this question is, how many U.S. colleges universities, and higher learning institutions offer cannabis degrees and courses? Is it A. 18? B. 25? C. 56? or D. 75+? Take your best guess.
David Paleschuck
And those are colleges, universities and other higher learning institutions. So that really takes into account many different types of institutions that can offer either degrees courses or certifications. Hi, Aaron. Aaron. Thanks for joining us today
Adriana Hemans
We're getting a lot of guesses for D. Charlene, Cheryl, and Erin are all in agreement that it's 75+.
David Paleschuck
Marianne, and what do you what are your thoughts?
Marianne Cursetjee
You're going to make me go first again. All right. I'm, I'm going with the audience. And I'm also going with D. Just because it seems like a better answer.
David Paleschuck
I'm just trying to be chivalrous. Who said chivalry is dead? Michael?
Michael Zaytsev
I'm going to have to phone a friend. No, I'm just kidding. I believe the answer is D. But I want to, you know, say that like everything in cannabis, it's nuanced, right? Because I think there's a big difference between offering one course, for example, and having a full on degree program or Research Institute. You know, it's a different level of commitment and investment from the institution and often the different caliber of output for the students.
David Paleschuck
And in this case, we're talking about really everything, whether it's an accredited institution, or, or like you said, it could be somebody offering a course or a number of courses on any of the online teaching platforms so let's take a look, shall we?
Adriana Hemans
All right, here it is. Yeah, everyone guests, right. That's right.
David Paleschuck
And just to dive into that quickly, there are currently 26 colleges and universities offering degrees in cannabis. And as we spoke about before, cannabis degrees and courses range from cannabis business, cannabis law, marketing, the marketing of cannabis, to production, science, chemistry, biology and horticulture, among other things.
Adriana Hemans
It can be layered on to other educational programs. And that's probably where the sweet spot is where for students who, you know, want to have a career and have a specialization at the same time. So that leads me to my question about what is the like, what does it really take to prepare someone for a career in the industry? I know that, you know, obviously, you have to have a knowledge of cultivation, for example, if that's the area you want to go into, but aside from that, what do students you know, what did they really benefit from when they're getting prepared to enter the workforce?
Michael Zaytsev
Yeah, so I can speak to our programs at LIM College. And, you know, the first and foremost was bringing in industry leading experts and practitioners, you know, like David like Marianne, who have been in the industry full time building businesses and operating and can bring real world experience into the classroom for students. So that's a big part of our focus. In addition to having a world class faculty, we require all of our undergraduates to complete at least three internships throughout the course of their undergraduate studies. So often, they will work in industry in a variety of functions. So by the time they graduate, they're ready to take on a job and contribute from day one. So I think that's a big part of it. And then also just collaborating with industry, with policymakers, and making sure that what we're giving our students and what we're providing them is in line with what the industry needs. So I think it's a highly collaborative process. And, you know, to marry an earlier point, that requires a lot of updating to just to keep current with all the innovation and change that's happening in the space.
David Paleschuck
Yeah, yeah. Well, so Marianne, I mean, let's just speak about students, you know, I guess we're, we're talking about the machine to a certain degree, let's talk about the output, like, what are the opportunities for students? And is it important that they have degrees from schools that are focused on cannabis, or at least have a program focused on cannabis?
Marianne Cursetjee
I think the opportunities are endless, and boundless. And I think if you have a passion for working in the industry of passion for the plant, finding ways to improve lives through plant medicine, I think there's a place for you. And, you know, certainly we're here talking about higher education, and I'm certainly an advocate for higher education, because it helps make us all better. You don't necessarily have to go down that path. You know, I have two kids in college, and I fully support that, but you know, maybe it's a trade school, maybe you want to go study welding, and you go do that, and you work in a, you know, building processing equipment. But so there are so many things, and I would encourage people to try things. So sometimes, I feel like young adults are advised to, you've got to pick a path. And certainly, you have to pick a path short term, because you've got to get somewhere. But you know, my degree was in accounting, and I worked in, I worked at, you know, big software companies for years, I would have never imagined that I would end up owning a cannabis cultivation farm. So your career can take dogs and turns and twists and turns and just start with something and give it your all and learn and be open minded. And I think that that just be open minded opportunities, and something will emerge.
Adriana Hemans
Yeah, life does take you down a weird path, career wise, very meandering path. We see people, you know, switching careers all the time. I think we have time for maybe another question from the audience. So audience, if you have any questions for Marianne, or for Michael, please drop them in the chat and we'll add them in before we close out the show. And while we're waiting for that, let's talk about the potential impact of federal legalization. Do you see that as having an effect on the trajectory of higher ed and cannabis curriculum? Starting with Michael?
Michael Zaytsev
Yes, absolutely. 100% I think it would be fantastic for higher ed because a lot of research institutions and bigger schools, they're afraid to get into cannabis because they suspect that it could jeopardize their federal funding. And, you know, whether or not those concerns are valid, that's subjective, but you know, I think it would just allow for way more opportunity not only for Research for more schools to get involved, but also for standardization, collaboration, more jobs. I think it would be great for workforce development and education across the board.
David Paleschuck
Michael, I know, LIM College, as both undergrad and graduate courses, you know, and you spoke about internships earlier, too. It's hard to, we're not, it's hard, it, it's impossible to get somebody that is under 21, to even really touch the plant, right? Or do work on a farm. You know, so lots of those internships have to be non-plant touching. You know, so it really depends on what aspect of the industry you want to, you know, focus on. And, and I must say, how old you are, you know, who? And are you even able to, you know, be legally touching things at a certain age. So there's, there's lots, there's super complex, there's lots of issues. We've touched upon a lot, I think we've just touched upon them, I mean, God, just the ethics of cannabis education. And, you know, the over varying aspects of it are pretty intense and pretty, pretty grand, you know, in scale. So, at least we tried to get our heads around it today and tap on some of the questions that, you know, are most pressing. And we did it with folks that are not only talking the talk, but you're walking the talk. And so, Michael, we really thank you for what you do. You basically built a program, you know, with the support of others, and maybe not all the time, the support of others, but you've, you've pushed through, and you've really created something wonderful in New York City, and I think at the right time, so thank you, to you. And also thank you to LIM College. Thank you. Yeah. And Marianne, I mean, very much the same thing. I mean, you know, you're in the industry, you are a cultivator you are doing it, you're living it, and now you're actually teaching as well. So I can't thank you enough for not only doing what you do, but then bringing it back to students to teach them how to do it as well. So we thank you both. And, you know, I'll just finish by saying this. Teachers just don't get enough love. And so, you know, it's, it's hard to be a teacher, they certainly don't get paid enough. That's for sure. And so let's, let's show some love to teachers. And let's, let's try to build this vertical in the EDU space. I think it's really important.
Marianne Cursetjee
Thank you. It's been a pleasure chatting with all of you.
David Paleschuck
Thank you, Marianne. Thank you, everybody. And we'll be back next week, April 13th. I can't believe it's April already, but we'll be back next week, April 13th 11am PST / 2pm EST, chatting about “The 14 Cannabis Brand Archetypes”, and what they are and why they’re important. Thank you so much for joining us. Don't forget to check out www.brandingbud.com. Cannabis’s best kept secret. Have a great week. We'll see you next week. Thank you so much. Bye.
Adriana Hemans
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