Pubdate: Sat, 13 Apr 2013
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2013 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: http://www.reviewjournal.com/about/print/press/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Adrienne Packer
Page: 6B

CANNABIS COACH OFFERS CLINIC

Class Aims to Help Entrepreneurs Earn 'Euphoric Profits'

Bartending schools are about as common as drunken tourists in Las Vegas.

But how about bud-tending school? And we're not talking about 
baby-sitting your buddy's Budweiser while he uses the facilities.

And what about baking classes? This isn't the type for Martha Stewart fans.

In all of Robert Calkin's classes, the topic is weed, pot, marijuana 
or as he prefers, cannabis.

Just days after the state Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously 
approved a bill that would allow state-regulated medical marijuana 
dispensaries, Calkin and his team wafted into the Las Vegas Valley 
from Southern California to offer a daylong clinic organized by the 
Cannabis Career Institute, which he founded five years ago.

"Nevada is going to be a front-runner in how things are going to be 
done in the medical marijuana business as far as I can tell," Calkin 
said. "We want our students to be compliant with state and local laws 
so they can go out and be financially independent and create their 
own businesses and not stumble all over each other and create a bad 
image for our industry."

Calkin's book, "Starting Your Own Medical Marijuana Delivery Service: 
The Mobile Caregiver's Handbook," is used for classes at Oaksterdam 
University ("America's first cannibus college, founded in 2007") in 
Oakland, Calif.

About 40 Las Vegas agricultural entrepreneurs are expected to shell 
out $249 apiece to attend Calkin's class at the Henderson Hilton 
Garden Inn today. They will learn to identify their niche in the 
industry, be schooled on local and state laws and told they could 
earn "euphoric profits" of $10,000 a day.

It sounds like an attractive deal: Grow marijuana, learn ways to bake 
it into brownies, cookies and cakes and all the while assist patients 
who previously were left struggling to get marijuana for medicinal needs.

But there's a catch: Growing and selling marijuana, even with the 
best of intentions, is a federal offense. That Cannibus Career 
Institute certificate won't keep the DEA from knocking down the door 
and slapping on the 'cuffs, and no state law will keep a federal 
judge from sending a hard-growing pot entrepreneur to federal prison. 
Bummer, but true. "We know that federal laws, no matter what we do in 
the realm of medical marijuana it is illegal," Calkin said. 
"Hopefully in the future, that will evolve and so will the tax law. 
We hope Nevada will be part of that growth and metamorphosis because 
Nevada has been ahead of the curve in all social issues. If you can 
regulate prostitution, if you can regulate gambling, marijuana will 
be a piece of cake."

Federal law isn't the only hurdle. The proposed state law would 
require growers to put up $100,000 in assets before tending to their 
garden. Calkin said in the other states where he offers classes - 
Arizona, California, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, and soon 
Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Nevada - growers take partners to 
come up with their collateral.

"For those who don't want to start their own medical marijuana 
business, they will want to work for one or be in the industry," 
Calkin said. "We're helping them become trained, learn what their 
niche is going to be in the industry and understand where they will 
fit in with the whole industry. We want them to immerse themselves 
and become an expert."

Nevada voters have not had a problem with medical marijuana initiatives.

In 1998 and again in 2000 they approved a constitutional amendment 
allowing medical marijuana. But the 2001 law that implements the will 
of the people allows only patients to grow marijuana for their own use.

Last year, Clark County District Judge Donald Mosley declared the law 
unconstitutional because it does not give some patients a realistic 
way to acquire marijuana.

The pending dispensary legislation still must be approved by the 
Senate and Assembly and be signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Calkin estimates the first growers will be in business in about a 
year after the bill is signed. If the law changes, he plans more 
classes in Las Vegas.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom