Marijuana: There is a class for that at FGCU

Thyrie Bland | The News-Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Want to learn about marijuana? There is a class for that at FGCU. Florida Gulf Coast University will offer its students a class on marijuana in August.

You can grow it, smoke it and eat it.

You can use it recreationally and for medicinal purposes.

And now, there is a college class about it in Southwest Florida.

In August, 70 Florida Gulf Coast University students are slated to start taking a class on marijuana. The class, called "Weed: Impact of Marijuana," will be taught by Sam Walch, an integrated studies instructor, and Martha Rosenthal, a neuroscience professor.

The class will have a broad focus. It will give students a chance to learn about the drug's history, its medicinal uses, marijuana policies and laws, how the drug is portrayed culturally and the economic impact of dispensaries and selling the drug, Rosenthal said.

The class is Walch's brainchild. He would not comment on the course when contacted.

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The class puts FGCU on a growing list of schools ranging from the University of Vermont to the University of California at Davis to offer classes on marijuana.

Northern Michigan University in Marquette is cited as the first school to offer a marijuana degree because of its medicinal plant chemistry program. Colorado State University-Pueblo offers a minor in cannabis studies and special classes on the drug.

“From a certain perspective, it's a growing industry, and it's certainly growing in legitimacy,” said Mark Paulsen, head of the chemistry department at Northern Michigan. “And so students are going to be interested in learning more about it.”

There has been a cultural shift in how marijuana is regarded in this country, resulting in changes in laws. At least 30 states have legalized some use of marijuana. Some of the states and Washington, D.C., have decriminalized small amounts of weed for recreational use. Others states, including Florida, allow medicinal use.

“Every Libertarian is different, but we are pretty much in agreement that it should be legal recreationally,” said Dominick Mellusi, 22, a student at FGCU and president of Eagles for Liberty. “I think that personally throwing someone in jail for something that is as innocuous as smoking pot is immoral, and I think it's done a lot of damage."

At the Florida A&M College of Law in Orlando, adjunct professor Tamieka Range started teaching "Cannabis Law and Social Justice” as a summer course offering in May. She said she plans to teach a "Marijuana Law and Policies" class when the fall semester starts.

Range is an attorney and part of what her law firm does, she said, is advise people in the medical marijuana industry. She said she and her husband also are medical marijuana advocates who run ART420, which tries to change the perception of cannabis users through fine art.

Range said her work prompted her to begin looking into whether law schools were offering classes on marijuana. She said she found several schools were offering courses, so she created a class and made a proposal to FAMU's law school.

"We created the social justice side to focus on a lot of the issues that are still pretty much hurting minorities in the industry both from a criminal justice standpoint and from a business standpoint," said Range, a graduate of the FAMU College of Law.

Range said 12 students are taking her class this summer and many of them hope to work for law firms or start firms that focus on cannabis law.

"So a lot of the students see that they will be able to ... focus on a lot of the issues that are going to be coming out of the cannabis industry because there are so many untouched, untapped areas that fall from the business of cannabis," she said.

Rosenthal said the plan for the class is to bring in guest speakers who are on opposite sides of the marijuana legalization debate. She said students will be asked to read articles on different sides of the issue and discuss them in class.

Rosenthal and Walch will take turns leading the classroom discussions.

“I have been studying drugs, teaching about drugs for 25 years,” said Rosenthal, who has a doctorate degree in neuroscience and a master’s neuropharmacology. “My wish is that policy could be more informed by science. I am going to be taking the lead on a lot of the physiology, the pharmacology, the medical aspects.”

She said she believes Walch is going to focus on the economics and cultural aspects.

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Mellusi is not enrolled in the FGCU marijuana class, but he said that he isn’t surprised that the class has reached capacity and has a waiting list.

“I guess it’s because a lot of young people my age find it interesting because a lot of people my age use it, honestly, and want to know more about it,” he said.

The marijuana classes at other schools are popular among students, too.

At Northern Michigan, its medicinal plant degree attracted 45 majors when it was first offered during the 2017-18 school year, Paulsen said.

More than 200 majors are expected when school starts in August, he said.

Paulsen said the program’s enrollment growth has exceeded expectations. He said he believes the reason for the growth is the attention the program has received in the news.

Paulsen said the degree program gives students a strong science background in medicinal plants in general, not just in cannabis.

He said there are some marijuana-specific aspects to the program. There is a medicinal plant chemistry course. People connected to the medicinal marijuana industry are asked to talk to students. Students try to land internships in the medical marijuana industry.

“I think if you interview our students many of them upon graduation are hoping to get into that industry, and so we want to make sure they are prepared for that,” Paulsen said.

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As of last week,10 students were enrolled in CSU-Pueblo's year-old cannabis minor. Rick Kreminski, director of the university's Institute of Cannabis Research, said he expected the number to grow by one or two students by the time the fall semester starts.

"We are not teaching students how to grow cannabis," he said. "So we are not teaching classes about how to get involved in the industry and so on. At this point, its studying perspectives from the social sciences, psychology and the natural sciences."

Kreminski said what seems to be a hit with students at the university are the special topic classes the school has offered on marijuana.

Thirty students enrolled in the "Cannabis and Society" class offered during the 2017 spring semester. Forty-five students were enrolled in the "Cannabis Policy" classes that were taught in the fall and spring semesters during the 2017-18 school year.

He said the special topic classes maybe worked into the curriculum for the minor.

Kreminski said about a handful of schools that are interested in offering their own marijuana classes have reached out to CSU-Pueblo to learn more about its programs.

"It seems that the one thing that's guaranteed: There is going to be more and more interest in exploring those areas," he said.