SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) - A cannabis certification class at the University of San Diego is set to begin Monday, March 7. The school is partnering with Green Flower, a cannabis education company. There are two different programs, said Daniel Kalef, Vice President of Higher Education at Green Flower.
The first focuses on healthcare and medicine.
“From pain to pain management, inflammation, neurological disorders, there are so many things it can be beneficial for but people need to understand it before they can go help people understand it,” said Kalef.
The second focuses on law and policy, something Kalef said is expected to grow in demand.
“Regulation doesn’t stop. of course in the state of California it will never stop but even if it goes federally legal, it’s going to be even worse and there’s a huge need for people who can help with compliance,” he said, later adding that the “program is wonderful to help people get on the compliance side with the business side of it as well as people in the legal community being able to better serve clients.”
The program is hosted in the University of San Diego’s Division of Professional and Continuing Education and takes six months to complete. Each six-month program costs $2,950.
The course is available to anyone and there are no prerequisites or college degrees required. It’s asynchronous, meaning the coursework is done on your own time. Registration is open through Friday, March 11.
He said this industry is rapidly growing, citing data from Leafly, a cannabis research company that shares information on legal, licensed retailers.
A release from Leafly said there are now 428,059 full-time jobs in the legal cannabis industry nationally. That number grew thanks to the 32,700 jobs added in 2019, 77,300 jobs added in 2020 and 107,059 new jobs in 2021, meaning there are now three times as many cannabis workers as dentists in the United States.
“One of the great things about the cannabis industry is that the upward mobility is like nothing I’ve seen in any other industry. When you start, even at entry-level, people are moving into management quickly,” said Kalef.
