Following New York legalizing adult-use cannabis in March, one university is already working to meet the growing demand for qualified and educated professionals in the emerging industry.

University College at Syracuse University, the academic college of continuing education and professional studies, has partnered with Green Flower, a cannabis education association, to offer four programs where individuals can receive non-credit certificates in Cannabis Education.

The four programs are: Healthcare and Medicine, Cannabis Law and Policy, The Business of Cannabis, and Cannabis Agriculture and Horticulture. Each course is six months and includes three eight-week online classes.

Individuals do not have to be a student at Syracuse to enroll in the course. University College Dean Michael Frasciello said the university expects the primary student population to be individuals already in the industry looking to upskill and further educate themselves or people looking to enter the industry. However, he suspects that more university students will show interest in the programs over time as the cannabis industry continues to expand.

Frasciello gives a general overview of each program:

The Cannabis Law and Policy program will cover business practices, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation, future opportunities in related career fields, intellectual property, social equity, labor law, environmental law and consumer law, including advertising, labeling and packaging, he said.

“What we expect that we’ll see interest in this program from lawyers who are practicing but want to build expertise in this area within their practice,” he said. “Certainly, paralegals, or others in specific areas of the industry like advertising, labeling and packaging, that need to have a [better] grounding in some of the legal and policy aspects of it.”

The Business of Cannabis program will cover a wide range of topics, from business to the fundamentals of cultivation. Some cultivation topics include processing, extraction, manufacturing, lab setup and protocols and distribution. While the business side covers retail, delivery, licensing, business ethics, marketing, human resources, sales, accounting, how to scale business operations, real estate, innovation, investment and more, he said.

“The interesting thing I think about this program is that students create a business portfolio,” he said. “Basically, the portfolio is [students] set up [their] own company and create a very high-level business plan. They will look at risk analysis, operations, project management and lots of case studies.”

The Health and Medicine program is specific to understanding medical cannabis properties, he said. The course will cover human physiology, health care ethics and law, the use of cannabis in health care practices for practitioners and more. 

“Similar to where the business program has the portfolio, in this program, students [will be] partnered with integrated medical centers in the areas where they’re located or facilities to learn more about dosing, titration, administration—sort of drug interactions,” he said. “So, it [covers] some interactions that [they may] need to be aware of from a pharmacological perspective.”

The Agriculture and Horticulture program is the most “straightforward” of the four programs, he said. 

Students run through how to engage in production effectively and sustainably, which includes management cultivation as well as statutory and administrative laws.

Similar to the other programs, Agriculture and Horticulture is also project-based, and students will be required to do case studies specific to their state on local jurisdiction for cultivation, he said.

“There is a chemistry or scientific component to the program [as well],” he said. “Students will cover plant chemistry, disease and threats, techniques and processes for harvesting and drying, trimming and processing, storage, and there’s a module on industrial hemp again. So, we are trying to attend to all of the opportunities within the industry.”

Frasciello added, “Our decision to make this a non-credit as opposed to a credit program is that the non-credit program allows us to customize better [the program] to meet workforce demand. When you attach a credit to something, there’s a lot of governance on the backend that has to come into play, and we felt that with the non-credit certificate, we could be more agile and responsive to the demand and interest as it increases.”

Essentially, the non-credit aspect gives the university the freedom to make changes to the curriculum as the industry evolves.

“There were some folks on my team that had the foresight to identify that the cannabis industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country,” he said. “Then we determined that we probably should be moving into space with a continuing education program, which is where Green Flower came in.”

Green Flower faculty members with years of experience in different aspects of the cannabis industry designed and developed the curriculum. The university worked with them to ensure that the curriculum aligned with the “tenets of rigor and excellence” that the university is known for in the online space, Frasciello said.

LAS VEGAS, May 25, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Hervé, maker of luxury French-inspired and cannabis-infused desserts, announced the successful close of its oversubscribed $3 million Series A round of funding. This raise will accelerate Hervé’s growth and support new opportunities across the rapidly growing cannabis industry. 

Since its launch in February 2020, Hervé has created an entirely new category of edibles for the discerning cannabis consumer. In Nevada, dispensaries welcomed Hervé as a refreshing new category in the market that addressed the growing demand for higher quality cannabis products. The company’s portfolio launch included three exquisitely flavored gluten-free French macarons, which outsold all premium edibles in the market and commanded retail prices on average two to three times higher than competing products. Strong demand for additional flavors resulted in Hervé expanding the portfolio with two new flavors in mid-2020.

Courtesy of Hervé | hervedibles.com

Following its macarons, Hervé launched its Le Mirage collection of four gluten-free and vegan hard candies. Le Mirage candies are completely free of processed sugar, feature all-natural ingredients, offer sublingual faster-onset and boast fewer than two calories per serving. Flavors include menthe (peppermint), pêche (sour peach), pomme verte (sour green apple) and cerise (cherry). The Le Mirage collection features a patent-pending dispensing system that enables discrete consumption for any occasion.

Having established itself as a leader in luxury cannabis products, Hervé is now focused on expanding its winning formula to other markets. With the additional capital, Hervé will launch in two new cannabis markets before the end of 2021 and expand into three additional markets in 2022. The funding will also be used to add both new flavors of existing products and new products altogether to Hervé's product portfolio. 

"While we originally set out to create a new category of cannabis edibles, we never expected that we would already be introducing new products and planning our expansion within a year of launch," said Sebastien Centner, founder and president of Hervé. "We are thrilled about where the next two years will take us as Hervé becomes a household name available in markets across the U.S. and recognized as the benchmark for luxury cannabis products."

The Series A round was completed with existing and new investors participating, along with a new investment by SOL Global Investments Corp. In addition to its investment, SOL Global will be providing Hervé with strategic support through its vast network to help bring the Hervé brand to more markets and more outlets.

"With cannabis markets maturing we're seeing increased value in premium brands that dominate their category. The track record for the launch of Hervé in Nevada speaks for itself in creating a new ultra-premium offering." SOL Global Chairman and CEO Andy DeFrancesco said. "We continue to invest in strong management teams that see the importance of innovation as the foundation for growth. Hervé represents all these things to us, and we are excited about the company's direction."

In addition to its line of hand-crafted macarons and Le Mirage sublingual hard candies, Hervé is developing a series of effect-based cannabis products tailored to the growing national CBD market while planning to add more products to its portfolios over the coming months.

Following a decades-long prohibition on U.S. hemp production, farmers’ embrace of the crop and its myriad uses marks a return to an American tradition that extends back centuries.

In 1619, the House of Burgesses that governed the Colony of Virginia required its farmers to plant hemp.

Now, River Organics grows hemp on a 5-acre sandy loam in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed, where Operations Manager Ryan Cross is video-recording amid a virtual tour on this particular Monday in May.

Newly planted young hemp plants resting on plasticulture in the bright, sunny field come through Hemp Grower editors’ computer screens.

Photo courtesy of River Organics

“Those come from the greenhouse, and they've been planted, so they don't look like much just yet,” says River Organics Owner Adrianne Joseph, who’s also joining in remotely. “But imagine that's going to get to the size of about a Christmas tree by September.”

Thus continues the education surrounding the multipurpose hemp plant. In River Organics’ case, the company grows the crop, processes cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabigerol (CBG) and bottles the finished product following U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic standards.

Organic Overview

The Gloucester, Va., farm where River Organics is located has been in Joseph’s family for more than 30 years. She says she knew from the jump that River Organics would focus on organic production.

“I believe in wellness, so I do yoga every day, go swimming every day, go for a bike ride most every day,” says Joseph, who has worked as an attorney in mergers and acquisitions in France and the U.S. “And I feel that what you put in your body is extremely important. You really are what you eat, or ingest.”

When the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) passed, federally legalizing industrial hemp production in the U.S., there wasn't any organic CBD on the market.

There was a learning curve to becoming certified in all three segments of the business. “It's really quite a mountain to climb, and you can only really understand the magnitude of the requirements as you get into it,” Joseph says.

The Gloucester company aims to make its product stand out by holding USDA organic certification at three levels: farming, processing and bottling. Its hemp crop has been certified organic for three years, its hemp extract certified for two years and its finished product certified for one year, Cross says.

Photo courtesy of River Organics

River Organics had already been growing organic soybeans and corn for three years before transitioning its fields to hemp production, so it had experience with the organic farming aspect of its operation, as well as possession of a field that was free of what the USDA deems prohibited substances.

Cross, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and grew up farming with his family in Vermont, says that he liked the USDA organic certifier he and River Organics first started working with, Natural Food Certifiers, and decided to stick with them.

He adds that it’s beneficial that Natural Food Certifiers keeps open lines of communication with River Organics. “A lot of certifying agents have a ton of very large clients, and being a smaller client, you may not get the attention that you feel you rightfully deserve,” he says. “So, really, it just came down to efficient communication and a good working relationship was kind of the driving force."

On the processing and bottling side, Cross says companies need to send their standard operating procedures and materials to USDA organic certifiers, and if everything is up to snuff, those certifiers will issue certification in a matter of months. “Some certifying agents allow for an expedited process at an extra charge. Others don't,” he says. “So, it's a three-to-12-month period, just depending.” Then, he says the certifier can request subsequent testing at any time.

Growing and Drying

Because hemp is a bio-accumulator, it cleans the surrounding soil but also takes up the contaminants in that soil, Joseph says, pointing to researchers’ findings that hemp plants accumulated heavy metals near Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster there.

“That's why it's really important for people to buy organic because unless they are buying organic, they don't know what they're putting in their body,” Joseph says. “And while they might think CBD is great and it's doing wonders for them, they don't know what else is in there that might not be doing such good.”

River Organics has a 5-acre field and a 1,200-square-foot greenhouse for seedlings. Its growing operation is certified “100 percent organic” by the USDA, which Joseph says the company has achieved in part by choosing specific potting soil and planting seed in that soil at a specific time.

Photo courtesy of River Organics

Because the USDA organic certification requires that farmers apply no prohibited substances to their land for three years before harvesting an organic crop, Cross says River Organics’ experience growing organic corn and soybeans has served it well.

The company didn’t need to make large structural changes to the farm to transition from corn and soybeans, Cross says, adding “We didn't have to change anything about how we plant or the field preparation aspect of it.”

“Ryan is the guard of our certificate,” Joseph says of Cross, adding that if someone else on the team suggests using a specific input and it doesn’t meet the requirements, Cross says, “‘Nope, nope, nope. We can’t use that.’”

The team at River Organics lays down plastic around the plants in the field, which Cross says ties in with organic certification. “It helps suppress the weeds since we can't use any herbicides, and it also keeps the root zone a little bit cooler,” he says. “The white plastic actually reflects the sun, and it’s black-colored underneath, which helps eliminate any sort of light penetration. And it helps keep some water in that direct root zone so we don't have to water as much that way.”

River Organics’ drying operation is also part of that first “100 percent organic” segment of the production process. The team hang dries the flower by hand to preserve its cannabinoids and terpenes.

The drying facility is about 82,000 cubic feet, fully insulated and sealed with dehumidifiers and fans. “If we start to get pushed into the later season, we do have some heating elements in there that can add some heat,” Cross says. “But we don't like to add much heat if we don't have to.”

Processing and Bottling

Separated into two rooms, River Organics’ processing building is about 1,600 square feet. In the larger, roughly 1,200-square-foot room, team members extract the CBD oil. In the smaller, approximately 400-square-foot room, they create product formulations and bottle and package the finished product.

The processors use a centrifuge to conduct superchilled ethanol extraction. They then pump the extract into a storage tank. “From there, it gets pumped into the solvent recovery as we need it, so the more solvent we recover, we just add it continuously,” Cross says.

Photo courtesy of River Organics

Once the product is about 90% ethanol and 10% full-spectrum hemp extract, they transfer it to a rotary evaporator, where most of the decarboxylation occurs. “If we need to, we have a freezer that we can chill it down to [about] negative 10 Fahrenheit,” he says. “And we can do some secondary winterization if some of those fats and lipids did get through the ethanol extraction."

When River Organics began looking into organic certification for hemp extraction solvents in summer 2019, Cross says ethanol was the best approach. “At the time, that was kind of the best route to organic certification, in talking with the certifier contacts that I had,” Cross says. Safety, scalability, efficiency, facility requirements and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s classification of ethanol as “Generally Regarded as Safe” all played into the decision.

However, the company needed to use food-grade organic-certified sugarcane ethanol to be certified organic, which is more expensive than non-food-grade ethanol because the purchaser needs to pay an alcohol tax.

Another requirement for organic certification is that the processor show proof that her or she is successfully preventing contamination of sanitizing agents and other compounds used for cleaning, Cross says.

While the processing, like the growing, is “100 percent organic,” the bottling operation falls under the more general “organic” designation, meaning the end product has between 95% and 100% organic ingredients. This is because specific ingredients, such as bacon flavoring that the company will use for pet treats, is organic instead of 100% organic.

In addition to bacon flavoring, the bottling room houses other organic-certified oils, flavors and additives, such as tea tree oil and peppermint oil. It’s also where the company keeps its blue bottles and heat sealer for tamper seals and protective film.

River Organics currently operates in ecommerce. “We want to do retail sales, and we're looking actively for partners,” Joseph says. “We have a few retail [outlet customers] fairly locally, and we're looking to expand that. We're going to the CBD Expo in Atlanta in June, and we'll be looking for partners there.”

As the company continues to grow—and dry, process, bottle and sell—Joseph says it will remain committed to organics and paying attention to the details.

“We’re not one of these companies that has hundreds of acres, and we don't aspire to be one of those companies,” Joseph says. “We want to grow the best possible plants for the best possible products.”

Courtesy of Papa & Barkley | papaandbarkley.com

When Evelyn Wang was named the CEO of California-based cannabis and CBD wellness company Papa & Barkley in January, she joined the space after 15-plus years of senior management experience in the beauty sector and a lifetime of cultural heritage.

Courtesy of Papa & Barkley | papaandbarkley.com

Born in the subtropical Taiwan capital city of Taipei, Wang emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, when she was 18 months old. She earned her Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California and became a U.S. citizen nearly two decades ago.

Wang’s senior management experience came while leading premier beauty brands at L’Oréal and Estée Lauder. Most recently, she served as chief marketing officer for Milani Cosmetics, a leading international color cosmetics brand. Her crossover from beauty to cannabis is pillared by her expertise in building brands as well as her fundamental principles.

With a personal commitment to plant-based medicine, wellness and sustainability, Wang aligns with Papa & Barkley’s core values, said Adam Grossman, who founded the company five years ago after he formulated a homemade cannabis balm with a crockpot in his kitchen that eased his father’s back pain that had left him bedridden. That balm, in conjunction with other therapies, got “Papa” off hospice and able to return home, he said. “Barkley” is the family’s loyal pit bull.

“The board and I are confident that Evelyn is the right leader to build on our momentum and brand, adding depth to our stellar executive team,” Grossman said in a press release announcing Wang’s appointment to CEO, a position Grossman previously held. Papa & Barkley offers THC products in California and ships CBD products to all 50 states.

Here, Wang talks business in her transition to the cannabis and CBD space, as well as her cultural background as it relates to the space in correlation with Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month.  

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for style, length and clarity.

Tony Lange: What attracted you to Papa & Barkley to take on the CEO role?

Evelyn Wang: I’ve always been very interested in things like plant medicine, wellness and health, and have always personally aligned with those different types of industries. Particularly with cannabis, it was something that I had thought was interesting for a while and thought how amazing it would be to enter an industry that you can help shape that’s really still in its nascency. So, when I was recruited for Papa & Barkley, I really learned about the brand story and how Adam Grossman, our founder, created this product for his own father. Adam was desperate to find something that could help his father get out of hospice and turned to cannabis as something that could really help him. I just felt that was such a relatable story. It’s so authentic. It speaks to so much that I find resonates with me. He was motivated to find something to help someone and then ending up finding it in cannabis. Just knowing that there’s so many other solutions that we can still help with, I think that’s a great mission to be a part of.

And then just learning everything about Papa & Barkley; this is a company that goes through extraordinary lengths to ensure our product quality. We actually make things more expensive just to make sure that we’re really delivering to consumers a full-spectrum, full-plant, solventless product that is truly effective. So, all of that, plus the idea that it was this company that had so much incredible runway to scale and grow—those are all things that I definitely cannot say no to. 

TL: After more than 15 years leading beauty and cosmetic brands, were there any other specific reasons why you decided to switch things up and join the cannabis and CBD space?

EW: What’s interesting is there’s a lot of crossover between beauty and cannabis. And there actually are quite a lot of people who have this twin beauty, cannabis background. I think it’s because both industries attract people who are super passionate, creative and able to kind of accept and deal with things that are not the norm. They like things that are out of the box. I would say that was my perception from the outside, and that’s definitely true now. I actually love how this is the industry for individuals who have a lot of passion for what they do and are not necessarily people who walk a very predetermined path. They’re all people who have very unique and different backgrounds. So, I love being in that type of environment.

TL: Why do you personally have a deep and personal commitment to plant-based medicine, wellness and sustainability?

EW: These are, I think, core issues of our time. And I think they’re all connected. I think that we have a health crisis in the country. I really believe that. And I think that so often we’re taught to look at very symptomatic types of solutions, very pharmaceutical type of solutions, and obviously we need those things. But I do think there’s so much room for just understanding health from a holistic level, understanding how everything works together as a system. And, to me, plant-based medicine is a huge part of that. I think you truly are what you eat; you truly are what you consume.

TL: Has your experience as the chief marketing officer of Milani or senior management experience leading beauty brands like L'Oréal or Estée Lauder helped you in your current position at Papa & Barkley?

EW: Yes, definitely. Beauty is very much about telling a great story. It’s telling a great story, telling it visually, showing the product efficacy. Those are all things that I think are so applicable to the product we’re selling at Papa & Barkley. Even Adam’s original story is a testimonial story about how cannabis worked as a solution for his father. So, it’s very much a category where how you talk about a product is so important.

And then I think that beauty is a category that really has learned how to harness the power of social media influencers. I think that is something that we can plug into in the cannabis space. Because, again, if you think about it, it’s about building a community of people who are so passionate about your product that they want to tell others about it. And then I also see a lot of things I have to learn, for sure. I see a lot of ways that the background I have can hopefully bring a lot of best practices to Papa & Barkley.

TL: Since becoming CEO in January, what have you been primarily focused on in terms of helping Papa & Barkley move forward as a company?

EW: I think that product innovation is always the lifeblood of any company. So, we have been spending a lot of time on getting our product innovation ready, not just for 2021, but into 2022 and even starting to think about ideas for 2023. That’s a big one where we’re really trying to double down on our innovation and make sure we have a very robust roadmap, not only for our California market but also nationally. We see a really big opportunity for us, the brand, to expand our national direct-to-consumer e-commerce business.

And then the other thing is that we also have the products in our national seat, which are the same quality, the same sourcing, the same testing that we do company wide. And we can use our B2C [business-to-consumer] to speak to a consumer in New York, in Florida, in Iowa. We can really start to already build out the Papa & Barkley brand using our national CBD products even ahead of federal legalization of cannabis products as a whole. We’re definitely doubling down efforts there because we think the opportunity is feeling the brand into a nationally recognized wellness brand powered by cannabis.

TL: I saw that you earned your MBA from USC—are you originally from Southern California?

EW: No, I was actually born in Taipei, Taiwan. And I grew up in Vancouver, Canada. So, I am American, but I became an American almost 20 years ago. I kind of have been all over the map a little bit.

TL: Have you personally or indirectly been impacted by factors associated with the Stop Asian Hate movement in 2021?

EW: Yes. First, it’s been a weird time that has been at times personally frightening, saddening, just alarming in terms of actually having to fear for your own personal safety in public spaces. That is something that was a heightened thing for myself personally in 2021, you know, having a sense of like, ‘Should I be taking extra safety precautions in certain situations?’ On that point, it impacted me in that way. It definitely also made me think more reflectively as well in terms of, ‘What is my role in this?’ In my position, what are the steps that I should be taking? What do I have to do versus what do I feel I should do? Because you feel this sense of responsibility that you have to be a voice and sometimes that’s tiring. Sometimes, you don’t want to have to represent. But regardless of whether you want to or not, you’re a face that people want to know, ‘Hey, what are you thinking about this? What is your stance on this?’ So, yeah, I would say from just a personal safety perspective I have been impacted. Also, I’ve reflected on how I can communicate my personal views on this in a way that can help.

TL: What’s your perspective on the importance of increasing AAPI diversity in the cannabis and CBD space?

EW: I’ve always had this feeling, regardless of being in cannabis or not—I think diversity is something that we need in every category, every industry. If you have a category, if you are trying to appeal to a diverse consumer base in any type of intelligent way, I think you need to have a diverse base of people inside your company internally to be able to connect with that consumer. If you speak to any cannabis or CBD dispensary owner these days, they too will tell you that the consumers who are coming into dispensaries are changing. There are many different types of demographics that you might not have seen even three to five years ago that are now in dispensaries.

So, cannabis is really starting to appeal to a broad base of people. I think that is even more why we need to have diversity in this industry. There’s so much room for innovation in the industry still. It’s still one thing that attracted me to the industry is that it’s very young. We’re only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the type of innovation we can bring. So, the more different ideas we have, the better for the industry.

In general, I would say, yes, most people from AAPI backgrounds have probably come from a more culturally conservative background. There is probably more cultural hesitancy around an industry that’s still not federally legalized. But I think the more people who can enter the industry and sort of be an ambassador back into their communities, the better for de-stigmatizing the industry.

TL: What’s your perception on cannabis and how it relates to either your heritage or the AAPI community in general?

EW: It’s been so interesting for me to actually delve into the history of cannabis myself and learn and discover that cannabis, if you want to look at it historically, has actually been part of Asian culture for thousands of years. It was a major crop grown in China in like 4,000 B.C. There’s definitely a historical connection there for sure.

Regardless of that, it’s not about how far back in your culture cannabis goes. You don’t have to be able to say ‘Oh, my people were part of cannabis thousands of years ago’ to say that you belong in the industry. I think it’s really a sense of being able to just say, ‘Yeah, I’m interested in cannabis and I belong here. I have a stake and I have a voice at the table.’ That’s really how I view it. I think that cannabis can be for everyone. And I definitely think while there is a specific connection for Asians to cannabis, regardless of that, they belong in the industry.