When Philip Lamy co-taught a class at Castleton University about the history of cannabis in the spring of 2016, he said it was the first time he ever had students attend his lectures who were not enrolled in his course.
“Many of them sat on the floor, since we had no seats left, just to engage in this topic, which we all felt was somewhat revolutionary,” Lamy said.
As the Statehouse debates legislation that would create a legal market for recreational marijuana sales, and as farmers in the state turn to hemp production, cannabis has also become a hot topic of conversation in higher education classrooms. While many colleges in the state offer courses or research opportunities related to cannabis, Castleton is the first to create a full Cannabis Studies Certificate program.
Lamy helped launch the program last fall in response to student interest and with the goal of correcting widespread misconceptions about the substance. The courses have remained popular, with 120 students enrolling in at least one of the classes and 12 signing up to complete the certificate.
The certificate program covers a wide range of topics relating to cannabis, including the economics of the industry, the sociological and anthropological aspects of cannabis and the history of the substance. The program includes three courses — Canna-Business; Cannabis, Cultivation and Care; and Cannabis, Culture and Consciousness — and an internship component.
“We think we’re pretty unique in what we’re doing,” Lamy said. “Most of what I’ve seen across the country is colleges and universities focusing on cultivation, CBD production and the medicinal effects of marijuana but very few that are looking at the history, the sociology, the business aspects of it. We’re doing all of it.”
The program’s launch came with challenges, including questions about how the classes would impact student financial aid and how the curriculum was designed.
“The program was of course controversial and a lot of the controversy stemmed from the fact that marijuana is still illegal at the federal level,” Lamy said.
Funding issues have limited how many non-traditional and part-time students are able to access the courses. Lamy explained that the program was designed in the hopes of attracting both traditional college students and non-traditional students like local farmers. However, non-degree students are not eligible for federal financial aid in general, and part-time students are not able to put federal aid toward this certificate specifically. Out of pocket, it costs in-state students nearly $1,500 per course.
Full-time students at Castleton also face some restrictions. They must be enrolled in 12 non-Cannabis Studies credits in order to continue receiving full-time federal financial aid, and can then opt to take Cannabis Studies classes in addition. This limits how many of the courses full-time students can take at a time, which is not the case with any other program at the college.
While these restrictions have not had a major impact on the program’s popularity this year, Dean of Enrollment Maurice Ouimet says there is a concern about the program’s ability to grow.
“The concern is going forward, with sensitivities around the cost of higher education in general, more and more students are opting to go part-time and more and more non-traditional students are coming back to finish their degree,” he said. “I think the trend going forward is we’ll see more students in that category.”
Castleton currently has 1,800 full-time students compared to roughly 300 part-time students, and 80% of their students receive federal financial aid.
The Cannabis Studies Program also faced some opposition within Castleton’s faculty, with some members of the Department of Health, Human Movement and Sports raising concerns about the curriculum.
Katy Culpo, an associate professor in the department, was among them. Culpo said she did not oppose the program. Rather, she felt that in order to call a program “cannabis studies,” the curriculum should include a course dedicated to the individual and public health effects of cannabis.
“Our challenge was that the course offerings themselves needed balance,” she said. “If it was truly a studies program of any substance — alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cannabis — you would need a least one course that really takes a hard look at what we know and don’t know about that substance, whether that’s from a pharmacological perspective, or a psychological, social, biological perspective.”
Culpo worries that the program’s design does not adequately cover the potential risks of using cannabis.
“I think a huge mistake we could make on any college campus is any messaging that cannabis use is not harmful to a developing adolescent brain,” she said. “We would never promote anything about tobacco use, or even alcohol use, for developing adolescent members of our society.”
Culpo said she and another colleague reached out to Lamy and the other faculty planning the Cannabis Studies program last year to address these concerns, and that she raised them at the faculty meeting where the program was approved.
“If you had students who were graduating who are really interested in this, and it’s a business where people are going to make money, let’s have them take a class where they really understand individual health, public health, all the intricacies and nuances of legalizing cannabis,” she said.
Lamy said that his Cannabis, Culture and Consciousness class addresses some health-related topics, and that he hopes to add an entire course dedicated to individual and public health in the future as the program expands.
Students enrolled in the program describe it as a positive learning environment, and many spoke about their aspirations to enter the cannabis industry after graduation. Caden Curtis of Rutland is graduating with an associates degree in general studies in May and said the launch of the certificate program convinced him to return to school this year. He is planning to work in the hemp industry for the next few years but his goal is to work in a nursery growing recreational cannabis.
“It’s so rare to have a certificate and get a piece of paper,” he said. “Everywhere else in Vermont it’s just classes, it’s not a program.”
Lamy said he hopes to expand the program into a minor, or even a major, as it continues to grow. For now, he and the other professors teaching Cannabis Studies classes plan to offer the courses over a shortened summer term in the hopes of drawing in more non-degree seeking students.
The spelling of Maurice Ouimet’s name has been corrected.