Following the passage of Amendment 3 in Missouri, which legalized adult-use cannabis in the state, one university is already adding specialized programs in cannabis.
The university is offering four six-month non-credit programs at $2,950 each: Cannabis Healthcare and Medicine; Compliance & Risk Management; The Business of Cannabis; and Cannabis Agriculture and Horticulture. Students will receive a certificate upon course completion.
Jay Johnson, Northwest associate provost, told KQTV 2 that the goal of the programs is to educate students about the industry, support cannabis career pathways and meet industry needs.
“If this is going to be legal—and now it’s going to be legal recreationally—we really need to have people out there that are serious about the profession,” Johnson said. “I was a little hesitant that Northwest would want to do something like this, just because it is such a new thing, and in a field that’s, you know, been illegal for years.”
According to the news outlet, the university is also partnering with cannabis training platform Green Flower.
“Having that opportunity for people in Missouri to go to Northwest Missouri State and take a program that’s really going to prepare them for a career is really perfect timing and a perfect complement to what’s happening,” said Daniel Kalef, Green Flower vice president of higher education.
