As the federal government is in the process of legalizing marijuana and its production, McGill University has declared that they will be offering a graduate program for marijuana production beginning in 2019.
This opportunity will be tailored to people who already have a background in plant biology, according to a Global News article.
“Tens of thousands of workers and experts will be needed in this industry and we are responding to the demand for high-quality workers in the medical marijuana sector,” Anja Geitmann, the dean of the department of agricultural and environmental sciences, said in an interview with Daily Hive.
The university is ready to introduce the course with two workshops and eventually, a full semester course starting next year.
The two workshops will take place on May 1 and 2 of this year, and will be targeted towards professionals within the plant production and greenhouse industries, professionals who work in food science and medical chemistry who want to work with cannabis, and graduate students, according to the faculty’s website.
The first workshop will provide participants with information on the proper specifications for industrial-scale greenhouse production.
The second workshop will provide participants with information on techniques for the extraction of active ingredients.
“The courses are definitely still in the works,” Geitmann told the Daily Hive.
She said that the main idea of the program would be to offer additional training to those who are already suitably trained in order to facilitate their employment in this new sector.
She said that the training would be offered not only by the professors at the university’s MacDonald campus, but also by industry professionals who will be invited to teach a few courses.
Canadian companies are planning on being at the forefront of this new sector. According to Statistics Canada, in 2017, Canadians spent $5.7 billion on marijuana and 4.9 million Canadians between the ages of 15 and 64 purchased medical and non-medical marijuana.
According to a CBC News article, marijuana production is now bigger than the beer or tobacco industries in Canada, leading the way with $3.4 billion worth of products produced. In an interview with Radio Canada, Geitmann said the program will help meet a demand for skilled workers in the marijuana industry.
“The biggest industries are setting in brand new greenhouses, and these greenhouses are the size of several soccer fields, they are high technology and look totally professional. This is essentially a new pharmaceutical industry that is setting up but uses compounds that happen to be produced by a plant,” she said.
In response to the university’s announcement, some marijuana producers said they believe degree programs such as McGill’s will be vital to provide more information regarding the growth and maintenance of the plant.
“Our industry is seeing tremendous growth and we are always looking for qualified workers,” Andrée St-Cyr, a licensed medical marijuana provider, told CBC News.
Adam Greenblatt, the brand manager for Tweed, another licensed marijuana provider, said in an interview with CBC News that this diploma is evidence that the cannabis industry is going mainstream.
“A lot of the experience and knowledge base in the cannabis world has been developed sort of underground. There is a growing need for certified education,” he said.
