AC Moon
https://www.indicainnovations.com/
Opinion Piece
It is well known within the United States that Cannabis education, science and research has been seriously delayed with many key points of potential corruption being the downfall of policies.
Within the current spectrum of Cannabis curriculum, you can see the programs through slanted eyes.
Pay to pay platforms take over- reminding us of the commerce that is education and how it can fully indoctrinate an entire society with misinformation.
Currently with Cannabis (high THCd9), it is federally illegal to teach or have present on any land grant University steps.
This forces the scientists and educators to use Hemp plants to design curriculum around that may echo the goals in Cannabis cultivation, but truly creates a box around the plant which forms barriers to true knowledge of the Cannabis industry as a whole.
When viewed through a wider prism, the tactics of controlling information have been a serious issue, especially for those sectors like high THCd9 that may have the room for serious commercial exploitation.
Universities are forced to use their extensions to purchase online platforms that may or may not correctly vet information and sell them to the masses as an entry point into the still currently prohibited sector of education. Accreditation is purchased through businesses that profit from their certifications and are backed by monetary sureties that protect them in case of fault.
This leaves a huge gap open for invalid information that hazes over the real topics and challenges in cultivation, science, medical and political advocacy or extraction technology, eventually trickling down to other parties that are unable to verify the information.
Currently many curious and excited patrons have turned to Greenflower education online platform which is being sold by several Universities as their option for Cannabis education.
This prefabricated all-encompassing basic overview of aspects can cost upwards of 2k and touts a “Master” certificate for subjects that are merely viewed on videos with basic written overviews. This gives false sense of knowledge to would be entrepreneurs and industry workers, allowing them to believe that they are “master”, when in truth all they have done is sat in front of a screen and only just begun their journey in Cannabis learning.
Additional challenges of Cannabis law that’s affecting the evolution of the industry is access to funding.
With all other topics, federal funds can be gained through FAFSA educational grants to help a potential student through schooling and gain degrees. Due again to the federal scheduling of this topic, schools cannot allow or offer truly accredited education on Cannabis, which limits participants in a greater way. Certification programs often control conversation with no ability to achieve actual degree focuses.
This can be seen in Hemp sectors as well with online major Universities such as Cornell offering these certification programs. It can be seen that most teachers or writers of the subjects have little to no actual experience with plants and it muddles access to grassroots experience at times.
Higher education points that are being offered can be seen as non-plant touching subjects such as Cannabis sociology or history and severely lacks in access to the science of the plant. Universities such as Cal Poly Humboldt head the way with ancillary social topics such as these.
Currently, in a major win for Cannabis culture, our political advisories at Origins Council- have lobbied together a unique platform which has combined the resources of the State of California, which has offered over a million dollars to study legacy genetics and the history of Cannabis in California. Partnered with the resources of UC Davis, UC Berkely, Leafworks DNA, United Core Alliance and again Cal Poly Humboldt- a year long review and interview process will take place by members to collect, document, verify and build the oral and genetic history of California Cannabis industry. Through these exchanges of the legacy challenges, genetic prints and stamps will be made to additionally verify cultivars in herbarium forms, offering the validation in history books to the hard-working farmers deserve.
Thankfully, due to California’s close ties to the wine industry and its knowledge of the use of terroir and appellation concepts in marketing and commerce, it has better propelled the state to fund this project, it being the first of its kind in the world.
As a ground zero point for Cannabis society and culture study, this is an opportunity for the preservation of this special history with relevant state funding and also encourages the combined efforts of entities and schools . Giving space for not just society understanding, but the science and genetic mapping needed in the future.
With current federal funding for research being void in the United States, we have, as a nation relied on the scientific input of European countries which allows the studies of the plant. This leaves room for a lot of misunderstandings and random genetic research that may or may not be applicable in the United States due to the vast difference in society, genetics, climate and practices.
With the forthcoming rescheduling topic looming in federal conversation, the United States has an opportunity to move forward in cannabis education if better conversations can be had. Emphasis for the focus being on research and education must be funded and supported.
Also, laws have also forced marketing and exchange of information onto social media and platforms such as You Tube where no such vetting of information exists. A person can buy likes and followers to appear more knowledgeable therefore further undermining the hard work of grassroots and valid participants of the national cannabis knowledge culture.
To truly break the stigma of sativa, we must first allow research to be the heading of the new world of Cannabis commerce, this, combined with pooling decades of hands-on information may be the key to truly freeing the plant globally and allowing all the understand its vast potential.
With private research being the only granted access, with private funding- it is easy to understand the potential points of corruption that can be thrown with sponsored research programs. We must allow proper investigation by peer groups in university settings. The only way to battle this is to verify that laws coming into place will allow free access to all for the research and education of the Cannabis plants, people and commerce.
