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Aspiring dispensary owners can learn their craft at DePaul University through a minor in cannabis studies.
Specifically, students at the Catholic college in Chicago can take a class on “community-centric dispensary management.” There are currently 263 licensed dispensaries in Illinois, which allows for medical and recreational use of marijuana.
The class drew criticism from an expert on marijuana, who said the university should not be promoting pot.
The course will “introduce students to cannabis dispensary management” where “dispensary leadership [is positioned] as integral to community development.” Part of this “community-centric” focus includes “examin[ing] the operational and cultural nuances of the dispensary business, taking into consideration community interests, consumer temperament, government regulations, and social equity.”
Additionally, the class will teach about what is “critical to running a successful dispensary” including “personnel training, compliance, recordkeeping, and product storage and processing” will be taught.”
The university is offering the course this school year as part of the cannabis studies minor.
Created as a response to the legalization of cannabis in Illinois in 2019, “the Cannabis Studies Program brings together a multidisciplinary community of faculty and students who integrate academic inquiry with social activism in courses, co-curricular events, research, and community engagement.”
After the pilot courses “Cannabis Business” and “Cannabis and Society,” experienced high demand from students when offered in 2020, a full curriculum was created and the minor was approved in the Spring of 2022.
The curriculum devised “adopts a social justice framework: all courses include learning goals and lessons that engage with social justice theory and practice, emphasizing an interrogation of issues of social equity” according to minor’s description online.”
As the cannabis industry grew, some of DePaul’s faculty “recognized that the emerging cannabis industry beckoned for a response attentive to the question of social equity even while observing that our students sought specialized training for work in this new industry.” This provides the backdrop for CAN 240, which both instructs students in the ins-and-outs of dispensary management while also focusing on community development.
A group critical of marijuana use and the growth of the cannabis industry have concerns about this course and the program it belongs to.
Kevin Sabet, the president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a non-profit dedicated to “educating the public about the harms of marijuana legalization,” shared his concerns with The Fix in an emailed statement. He worked in the Office of National Drug Control Policy under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Sabet said he does “not think colleges should be offering courses on marijuana business management” because they have a “normalizing effect on young adults.” These courses “[tell] them that engaging in a federally illegal activity is somehow a legitimate career path.”
He continued that this normalization is dangerous because marijuana ““”is connected to horrific mental-health issues, especially for young men, along with equally horrific physical-health issues.”
Because of this, Sabet says his group doesn’t “see any place for public funds going to support such classes” and that public dollars “should be used to encourage prevention and awareness, not the normalization of drugs.”
He also said private tuition should not be spent on classes like this. He wrote that “the kids and parents who pay for college should be getting better value for their money than what is in effect industry propaganda.”
Sabet drew parallels between marijuana and tobacco cigarettes. He said, “there’s no room for classes like this to co-exist within a drug policy framework that’s based on the actual science any more than there would be for similarly themed classes around tobacco/cigarette businesses.”
The Fix also reached out to several faculty who are a part of the Cannabis Studies Program and asked for elaboration on what “community-centric” approach to dispensary management is and for the ethical issues of promoting marijuana.
The Fix called and emailed Professors Donald Opitz, Kelly Goldberg, and J. Steven Kelly, but no one responded to inquiries in the past two months.
Professors Joseph Mello and Danielle Perry were also contacted via email but neither responded in the past month.
Meanwhile, Catholic bishops have criticized the legalization of marijuana and theologians have concluded Catholics should not use the drug.
