WRITTEN BY: Julia Travers
If you’ve been waiting to study medical cannabis sciences at the college level, your time has come. A pharmaceutical studies program leading to an MS in Medical Cannabis Science has enrolled its first students in Maryland and is accepting applications for the fall of 2020.
The University of Maryland is offering a Masters in Medical Cannabis that is hailed as the “first of its kind.” It was first announced in June and is now enrolling students at an unexpectedly quick clip. The school planned for an initial class of 50 but tripled the program capacity when 500 people applied.
For this semester’s degree program, classes started in August. The university is now taking applications for Fall 2020 — these are due on April 15. Anyone with a bachelor’s degree who works or plans to work with medical cannabis can apply. High Times reports that students must be willing and able to go to the University of Maryland once during each semester for symposia.
What will students be learning?
Within the two-year program, students will learn about medical marijuana. Key topics explored include cannabis’ clinical uses as well as its potential negative side-effects. Federal and state legislation and policy, and public health issues will also be part of the coursework. Graduates of the program leave with a Master of Science in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics through the University of Maryland’s School of Pharmacy.
“There have been a number of studies… indicating that there is an educational gap related to medical cannabis — that health professionals want more education because patients are coming to them with questions about cannabis and therapeutic uses,” program director and pharmacist Leah Sera told NPR.
One of the first 150 students to enter the program, Summer Krieghauser, said, “I really wanted a scientific basis for learning the properties of cannabis; all the cannabinoids and how they interact with the body. I wanted to learn about dosing [and] all the ailments and how cannabis is used within a medical treatment plan… ”
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