Britt Bardman
Staff Writer
Colorado State University’s Pueblo (CSU-Pueblo) campus is now offering a cannabis degree, allowing students to begin studying this coming fall in either an analytical track focusing on chemistry or a natural products track focused on biology.
The school anticipates high demand for the minor, anticipating as many as 60 students to be enrolled after four years. The 22 credit program is open to all students and is specifically designed for students seeking to complement their major program of study in Social Work, Sociology, History or Political Science.
CSU-Pueblo’s website claims the degree will provide “courses focused on cannabis and its social, legal, historical, political and health-related impact on society”.
“The demand and use of cannabis in almost all industries warrants research and expertise. We need to understand how and why the world is going green,” said Kaylen Maltais, a student at the University of Wyoming.
The new degree seeks to do just that. By identifying legal and social ramifications of cannabis on society, explaining local, state and federal policies regarding cannabis, and applying knowledge gained from cannabis studies to internships in health, social, legal or nonprofit settings, the university is giving students opportunities to learn and perhaps work in the growing industry.
Governor John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 16-191 in 2016, enabling the General Assembly to allocate revenues from the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund to the Colorado State University System to support marijuana education and research programs at CSU-Pueblo.
In addition, CSU-Pueblo added “As a part of a Hispanic Serving Institution, there is an emphasis on understanding and appreciating the impact cannabis has had on the Chicano/Chicana community and other regional populations of the Southwestern United States,” to the description of the cannabis degree.
CNN reports the degree as a major that could see “graduates begin careers either in the cannabis and hemp industries or in the government”. Since the degree consists mainly of chemistry and biology coursework with some classes in math and physics, graduates could also be competitive in a wide variety of businesses outside of the cannabis industry, including agriculture, food science, biochemistry and environmental sciences.
The program is not the first of its kind, however. Northern Michigan University has a bachelor program in medicinal plant chemistry that is primarily tailored to those wanting to enter the cannabis field.
“The Colorado Department of Higher Education believes it could be the first of several cannabis-focused degrees that pop up at Colorado colleges in the near future,” CNN reports.
“I think offering the major helps destigmatize the use of cannabis and provides a better avenue to create a business that supports proper regulation and safer use,” said Samantha Smith, an environmental science major at UW.
Economically, cannabis is becoming more and more lucrative, and creating a business that supports proper regulation and use of cannabis is becoming more of a realistic venture. Marijuana sales exceeded $6.56 billion between 2014 and June 2019. Colorado’s revenue has reached more than $1 billion with taxes, license and fee revenue.
Colorado State University-Pueblo’s dean of the College of Science and Mathematics David Lehmpuhl wants the degree to be focused on the science of cannabis, not pro or anti cannabis in any way. It is exciting for him as a scientist to see the introduction of the new degree, he said.
