It’s never too late to go back to school – or to just go to school at all. As cannabis legalization has seen a multi-billion dollar industry take root, more and more potheads are dreaming of fulfilling their lifelong fantasy of making their money with legal weed.
But what to do when you want to polish up your resume for the cannabis business? Or when rolling great joints is the only skill you can bring to the table? You take a cannabis course online.
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There is a growing cottage industry of online marijuana schools that provide expert stoners and complete cannabis novices with the tools and training that can help them break into this growing industry.
Here are four of the top online cannabis courses available today.
1. THC University
Arguably most American colleges (and high schools) could be referred to fairly accurately as “THC university,” but there is an actual THC University you can register with online, to get the education you need for the cannabis biz.
THC University offers 9 separate online certification programs that the school says take between 3-6 months to complete. They include Introduction to CBD, Terpenes: The Healing Link between Essential Oils and Cannabis, Budtender Basics Certification, Marijuana 101 Certification, Grow Basics Certification, Horticulture Specialist Certification, Cannabis Business Certification, Colorado Safety and Regulations Certification, and the Washington Safety and Regulations Certification.
Students get unlimited access to all courses, live chat support Monday through Friday, access to monthly expert webinars, a mock job interview, resume consultation, and more.
It also offers a “Cannabis Business Training” course for teams of between 5 people and 100+.
The school, whose mission “is to teach the world about cannabis in the most effective way possible,” provides an actual physical certification, and requires a score of 90% on the final exams – so study hard!
2. Medical Cannabis for Pain Control
Most cannabis fans have a good grasp of how it works for a good time – how it makes music and movies better, and of course, the munchies. But what if you want to know more about the science behind the medical side of cannabis?
Run by Israel’s prestigious Technion Institute of Technology, the Medical Cannabis for Pain Control course looks at multiple disciplines and how they relate to medical cannabis, including neuroscience, pharmacology, oncology, and psychiatry.
The online course also examines the historical use of cannabis stretching back to ancient times, botanic aspects of the cannabis plant, and the pros and cons of its medical use.
The course is broken into a 8-week syllabus, with each weekly course spanning about an hour of videos (and some practice exercises), and covering subjects including pain, history of medical cannabis and early human contact with cannabis, botanic, interactions between cannabis and our body, effectiveness for pain, effectiveness of cannabis on other conditions, safety, and safety: lesson choices (the final class takes six hours to complete).
Upon completion, students receive an electronic certificate they can easily print or attach to their LinkedIn profile – right where you want people to see it.
3. Medical Cannabis: The Health Effects of THC and CBD Specialization
The vast and rapid expansion of legal medical cannabis programs in recent years has created a real need for evidence-based information about the pros and cons of cannabis products and how to optimize its use. The University of Colorado Boulder’s online course “Medical Cannabis: The Health Effects of THC and CBD Specialization” is meant for patients and their loved ones, health care providers, and people who want to work in the cannabis industry, according to the university.
The program is separated into four courses:
“History of Medical Cannabis” will help students “think critically about past, present, and future research” on medical cannabis, and give them an understanding of cannabis cultivation, the legal history of cannabis, public policy, and the research covering cannabis.
“Cannabis, Chronic Pain, and Related Disorders” is a critical look at the health effects of cannabis, including in treating chronic pain, opioid use disorder, obesity, sleep dysfunction and cancer.
“Cannabis, Mental Health, and Brain Disorders” looks at how cannabis – and cannabinoids THC and CBD – can affect several mental health and neurocognitive disorders, including anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, depressions, and Alzheimer’s, among others.
“Finally, Healthy Aging and the Future of Cannabis Research” is a dive into how medical cannabis can affect inflammation, exercise, and aging. In addition, students will learn about how the endocannabinoid system reacts to exercise and the aging process.
The program should take about four months to complete with a workload of about 5 hours per week. Students can also take any of the individual courses on their own.
4. Trichome Institute
Since 2014, the Trichome Institute has provided students with training covering all aspects of cannabis, from the basics of the plant itself to the nuts and bolts of the industry and the finer aspects of marijuana.
The Institute offers three distinct courses – Interpening, CPST, and Cannabis for All.
The institute describes Interpening as “the first-ever multilevel cannabis sommelier certification program.” The course is an in-depth five-hour lecture covering the science of cannabis, including taxonomy, appellations, strains, Indica vs Sative, anatomy, chemistry, and more.
It gives students the know-how needed for “identifying quality and understanding effects” of cannabis, so you can finally be one of those people who holds beautiful nugs up to a light and says really intricate things that would put your average sommelier to shame.
The CPST program (“Cannabis Products and Sales Training”) is an 8-part course meant for cannabis professionals who need to “become more familiar with various cannabis products and their applications,” in order to increase sales, decrease risk, and improve quality training, according to the institute.
Finally, Cannabis for All is a course for the canna-curious, be they first or second time consumers, parents, caregivers, people who have had bad experiences with weed and want to give it another try, and much more.
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