MBA In Marijuana? Six Colleges Now Offer Courses

Are you trying to make a decision about which major to choose and wish you could get an MBA in marijuana management? If so, your day has arrived.

As the marijuana business becomes legal, colleges offering courses in the industry are following. In particular, six colleges have added classes in marijuana business management or law to their course offerings — and they promise that it is a better business decision than changing your name to Taylor Spliff like Diplo.

The latest addition to this type of marijuana college education is Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. ABC News was the first to post about the decision the college made to offer a marijuana business class and interviewed the professor teaching the course. Shad Ewart stated that he felt “like we were doing a disservice to our students by not having a class like this.”

Students currently attending Ewart’s class called “Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Emerging Markets: Marijuana Legalization,” will be educated on dealing with the finer points of sales and helping states to legalize marijuana. CBS News also covered the story about Anne Arundel Community College and said the marijuana business course offers information on the history of marijuana, tax and economic impact of legalization, and the regulatory issues surrounding marijuana.

Ewart stated to ABC News that selling other products on the market is easy, but marijuana is much more complicated.

Ewart said, “The growing part and the dispensing part are going to be the most highly regulated parts of the industry and the other parts are far much easier.”

The University of Denver also introduced a class for medical marijuana in the recent past. While Anne Arundel Community College focuses on business classes that educate students on marijuana, the University of Denver has their new marijuana class offered through their law school. The Denver Post stated that the class, titled “Representing the Marijuana Client,” was full after just a few days and it now has a long waiting list for the following semester.

The course listing at the University of Denver website promises that the course will “investigate the challenges associated with representing marijuana clients…. Topics covered will include regulatory compliance, criminal defense, contract, banking, tax, real estate, and multidisciplinary practice.” It will also cover state and federal laws governing marijuana and gives students a chance to listen to the experiences of marijuana businesspeople as well as the lawyers they have hired to represent them in court.

Are you looking for a university near you that offers marijuana college courses? You may not need to change schools or move far from home. The Denver Post goes on to state that four other universities have offered a marijuana class in the recent past, including Oaksterdam University in the Bay Area, Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, Harvard University of Law School, and Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville, Tennessee.

[All images from the referenced links. Feature image used with permission via Doug Pensinger at Getty Images.]