Teaching a class about marijuana is not something Trusty thought about until last summer, when she went to a conference in Oakland, California.
“Almost as a joke,” Trusty said. “But I knew it was an up and coming thing. I applied to go to a cannabis conference where we learned all about growing and marketing and the whole cannabis industry. There was so much to learn.”
This fall, Trusty and other professors will teach students how they may be able to capitalize on Ohio’s new medical marijuana industry.
“Our horticulture students are interested in cannabis and that is definitely a job avenue now that the legal cannabis industry is coming to Ohio,” she said. “There are a lot of different kinds of jobs, from cultivating to working in a dispensary to working with products that are made from the cannabis plant.”
Trusty said her colleagues have supported the new class offering from day one.
“I haven’t had any negative response at all. When I first applied to go to my training in this, they were very enthusiastic and I’ve had a lot of support,” Trusty said.
Fifth-year student Jamila Flowers said she hasn’t heard a lot of buzz about the cannabis class, but she thinks that will change when the fall semester starts.
“I think it’s great for the class to be here,” Flowers said.
Flowers said she personally knows very little about cannabis, ut with many Ohioans eager to use the drug legally for medical reasons, she’s glad there’s a class that will try to clear up any misconceptions.
“A lot of people don’t really know, like, I don’t even know, like, what is medical marijuana even really used for,” Flowers said. “I don’t really know what’s going to become of it. Is it going to be misused a lot? Has it been misused in other states that have already done this? I mean, I don’t know. Is it something that’s actually been beneficial? I’m not sure.”
Those are the kinds of question Trusty’s class will try to answer.
The class, which is scheduled to meet on Thursday evenings, has room for 40 students.