Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jun 2012
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Elaine O'Connor

MEDICAL POT CULTURE REACHES HIGHER LEVEL AT B.C. SCHOOL

VANCOUVER - Greenline Academy wants to be Canada's top institute of
"higher" learning, a place students can earn what amounts to a
master's degree in medical marijuana.

The school is designed to help students navigate the legal medical
marijuana industry.

It offers seminars, courses and consulting services to budding pot
entrepreneurs covering everything from growing techniques to legal
requirements.

"Greenline is about networking and education and compliance. We are
trying to educate people about the laws," said Kelowna-based founder
Don Schultz.

"The goal is just to get the education out there to help
patients."

He's running his next $330 seminar in Vancouver at UBC on Saturday and
Sunday. Among the topics: cannabis therapeutics, legal aspects of
medical marijuana and tips from a "master grower" on flowering and
harvesting the plant.

Schultz said the seminar is almost sold out. But don't expect to light
one up during class.

"They are there to learn. It's not a pot party, it's to do with
education," Schultz said.

Greenline has held previous sessions in Victoria, Vancouver, Kelowna,
Winnipeg and Edmonton. More than 1,300 people have attended the
sessions, the founder said.

The mission of the academy is to "provide students and business
professionals with the knowledge to build, protect and bring a
patient, caregiver and grower into this new industry with full
compliance of the laws and Health Canada's Regulations."

Schultz, a former pilot, property developer and realtor, got into the
medical marijuana industry in 2010, following his interest in
naturopathics.

He went to work for a legal grower in Colorado, then attended the
state's Greenway University where he earned an "MBA" as a medical
marijuana business administrator, and became a state-certified
cultivator of medical marijuana.

He brought the idea back to Canada and founded Greenline in April
2011. He plans to establish a bricks and-mortar school in Kelowna this
fall.

The hardest thing about his business is trying to persuade people he
deals strictly in legal education.

"I just deal in paper. I don't deal in narcotics," Schultz
said.

The website, Greenlineacademy.com also offers patients referrals to
medical marijuana dispensing doctors and growers, and offers growers
connections to patients.

It also offers educational services to medical practitioners, lawyers,
accountants, contractors and inspectors on aspects of the legal
medical marijuana industry, and help with navigating the law,
paperwork and application and approval process.
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MAP posted-by: Matt