Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jan 2017
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Jen St. Denis
Page: 4

HIGH INTEREST IN HIGHER EDUCATION ON CANNABIS

Kwantlen offers unique course as legalization on the horizon

A continuing studies course that began as a joke two years ago has
attracted more than 500 students who see medical marijuana as a
growing job opportunity.

"With 2,000 producers waiting for their licences, there are huge
employment possibilities within the industry," said Laura Armstrong,
who has a masters in horticulture science and experience working in
cut flower greenhouses. She's currently completing Kwantlen
Polytechnic University's Cannabis Professional Series online course.

"There are only eight licensed producers in B.C. compared to 22 in
Ontario."

The course is the only one in Canada that prepares students to work in
the cannabis business, said Jim Pelton, executive director of
continuing studies for Kwantlen. Armstrong listed some of the types
jobs available in the industry: production manager, greenhouse
manager, marketing and ensuring compliance with the many Health Canada
regulations that govern medical cannabis production and
distribution.

"Students are mostly getting jobs inside licenced producers, some are
getting jobs in dispensaries," Pelton said.

Kwantlen's existing horticulture program made the university a good
fit for the program, Pelton said.

"There are 36 licensed producers in the country, and a lot of those
folks come out of the pharmaceutical industry or they come out of the
investment community, but what they're getting into is industrial
horticulture," he said. "There's a need for some expertise."

Legal marijuana - not just for prescribed medical use - could be on
store shelves across Canada by 2018, fulfilling a campaign promise
made by the federal Liberals. Pelton is also watching that process
closely to see how the government decides to distribute and regulate
cannabis.

"We're trying to find out how to train people to work in this when it
happens," he said.

B.C.'s chief health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, sat on a task force
that did research, conducted site visits to jurisdictions that have
already legalized cannabis, and drafted recommendations to the federal
government as it prepares to table legislation, which could happen as
early as June.

The task force has recommended making the age limit for tobacco and
cannabis the same (in B.C. it's 19) and limiting personal possession
to 30 grams. Production and processing should be federally regulated,
but where products distributed and sold left to municipalities.

Taxation should also be used to encourage users to consume
lower-potency products, Kendall said.

The task force also recommended that there be a place for smaller,
"craft" producers alongside big, corporate producers. But all the
facilities need to employ good production practices to ensure the
product is safe, Kendall said.

Dr. Tom Perry, a Vancouver doctor, said he currently wasn't
comfortable prescribing cannabis to patients who ask for it, partly
because there has been little research on the actual effectiveness of
the drug, but also because most of his patients want to buy marijuana
from Vancouver's many dispensaries - which source their product from
the black market.

"We don't know what's in it - we don't know what they're using," he
said. "Very few people have wanted it through the currently licenced
producers, because it's expensive."
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MAP posted-by: Matt