Pot class: B.C. university to offer course on growing and selling cannabis

If you were ever thinking about growing and selling marijuana, Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia may have the course for you.

This fall, the university will offer a course called Introduction to Professional Management of Marijuana for Medical Purposes in Canada, believed to be the first of its kind, which will teach students how to operate a marijuana business under new government regulations.

The 14-week online course will be taught by Tegan Adams, who works as a business development manager at Experchem Laboratories Inc. The company does cannabis testing and helps producers with their submissions to Health Canada.

"You have a lot of people that are really good at growing marijuana who are used to black market and a lot of people that are investing in the marijuana industry are coming from different industries and there is a gap in the middle where Health Canada is regulating their production and neither of those two groups knows how to deal with it," Adams told Rick Cluff on CBC Radio's The Early Edition.

According to Adams, this creates an opportunity for management professionals to break into the industry and act as a liaison between all the parties involved.

The course will be split into four modules — plant production, legalities and regulations, marketing and sales and medical conditions and drug development.  

Currently there are only 25 federally licensed growing facilities in Canada. Thirteen of those are in Ontario and six are in B.C.

Adams said people need to be concerned with the rules if they want to grow legally and that is what the course will focus on.

"If you want to do that illegally, I'm sure there are many ways to look into that, but if you want to comply with federal guidelines and be part of a growing industry, that's more the audience we are looking at," Adams said.

To hear the full interview, click: Pot class