The University of Toledo is poised to train a budding workforce in Ohio.
When Ohioans voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November, they opened the door to new employment opportunities that stretch well beyond the counter of the neighborhood dispensary. UToledo is ready to meet the moment with its online cannabis management undergraduate and graduate certificate programs, encompassing four courses across the John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation and the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Dr. Brandon Cohen, senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing in the Neff College of Business and Innovation, teaches both Cannabis Law and Cannabis Entrepreneurship.
The in-depth curriculum offers students a holistic understanding of the plant, its properties and the legally complicated business market surrounding it.
“Students who obtain the cannabis management certificate come to appreciate the big picture,” said Dr. Steven Peseckis, associate professor in the Department of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. “It’s a well-rounded program that sets graduates up well for a career in a wide variety of roles in the industry.”
Peseckis teaches the course Cannabis Science – Plants and Products. Dr. Youssef Sari, professor and vice-chair and director of graduate programs in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, teaches Cannabis Science – Risks and Benefits. And Dr. Brandon Cohen, senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing in the Neff College of Business and Innovation, teaches both Cannabis Law and Cannabis Entrepreneurship.
The instructors said they’ve seen steady interest in the courses since the program launched in 2020, although they observe that most of their students have enrolled in them as electives without plans to fulfill the four-course undergraduate or graduate certificate program.
UToledo has so far conferred 11 undergraduate certificates, seven of them in spring 2023.
Taylor Paret, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Sciences, stands out among the first two students to earn a graduate certificate.
Professional interest drew him to the program. He said he’s interested in working in the cannabis industry after he graduates in 2024, and in drawing on his background in the sciences to contribute to a regulatory landscape that’s still taking shape in the United States.
“It’s such an emerging market,” Paret said. “It feels like if you can get your foot in the door now, you’re going to be set for the rest of your career.”
When considering the cannabis management certificate program as a way to position his feet in front of that door, Paret said he was most attracted to the courses outside of his academic wheelhouse: Cannabis Law and Cannabis Entrepreneurship in the College of Business and Innovation.
“Those are what really convinced me to pursue the certificate,” Paret said.
Cohen’s Cannabis Law digs into the intricacies of federal v. state law when it comes to cannabis, and the tension between the two that began with California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996.
“California was the first to legalize medical marijuana,” Cohen said. “That started the legalization process across the country. Ever since then states have started to take their own approaches to marijuana.”
Ohio is now the 24th state to legalize recreational marijuana, which remains illegal at the federal level.
Cannabis Entrepreneurship covers what Cohen calls the “cannabis vertical,” encompassing aspects of the industry that range from equipment sales and transportation to testing and marketing.
“There are a lot of different businesses within the cannabis vertical that are not related to buying and selling cannabis,” he said. “We go over all the viable opportunities in the cannabis space.”
Meanwhile Sari looks to pharmacology, biochemistry and neurobiology to explain the intended and unintended effects of cannabis use in Cannabis Science – Risks and Benefits, while Peseckis breaks down the chemistry of the plant itself in Cannabis Science – Plants and Products.
Peseckis explains the medical qualities of CBD, the psychoactive properties of THC and the aromatic compounds known as terpenes that distinguish one strain of cannabis from another, for example. He also covers how to grow the plants and create products from them.
