School Of Pot Offers "Higher" Education

Oakland Trade School Prepares People For Jobs In California's Medical Marijuana Industry

(AP)  You know you're in a different kind of college when a teaching assistant sets five marijuana plants down in the middle of a lab and no one blinks a bloodshot eye.

Welcome to Oaksterdam University, a new trade school where higher education takes on a whole new meaning.

The school prepares people for jobs in California's thriving medical marijuana industry. For $200 and the cost of two required textbooks, students learn how to cultivate and cook with cannabis, study which strains of pot are best for certain ailments, and are instructed in the legalities of a business that is against the law in the eyes of the federal government.

"My basic idea is to try to professionalize the industry and have it taken seriously as a real industry, just like beer and distilling hard alcohol," said Richard Lee, 45, an activist and pot-dispensary owner who founded the school in a downtown storefront last fall.

So far, 60 students have completed the two-day weekend course, which is sold out through May. At the end of the class, students are given a take-home test, with the highest scorer - make that "top scorer" - earning the title of class valedictorian.

Before getting to Horticulture 101, the hands-on highlight of Oaksterdam U, the 20 budding botanists, entrepreneurs and political activists at a recent weekend session sat politely through two law lectures and a visiting professor's history talk.

In the lab, Lee measured plant food into a plastic garbage can and explained how, with common sense, upgraded electrical outlets, a fan and an air filter, students can grow pot at home for fun, health, public service - or profit.

Lee explained to his students how to prune and harvest plants, handing the clipping shears to a woman who wasn't sure how close to the stalk to cut without damaging it. He offered his thoughts on which commercial nutrient preparations are best, as well as the advantages of hydroponics, or soil-free gardening.

During a discussion of neighbor relations, he warned against setting boobytraps to keep curious kids out of outdoor gardens.

Students gave various reasons for enrolling. Some said they were simply curious. Others said they wanted tips for growing their own weed, although judging from the questions, a few were ready for the graduate seminar Lee recently added to the curriculum.

Jeff Sanders, 52, said he has been buying medical marijuana since 2003, but wants to open a dispensary in the San Joaquin Valley because he doesn't like having to drive up to San Francisco and paying the markup.

"I see it as a good thing. You are giving back to the community," Sanders said.

Patrick O'Shaughnessy, 37, said he started smoking pot regularly for the first time about a year ago to treat his chronic migraines, depression and anxiety. After attending class, he said felt more confident about growing his own, which he wants to do because the dispensary he frequents often sells out of his favorite strain.

Oaksterdam U draws its name from the jokey nickname for a section of Oakland where some of California's earliest medical marijuana dispensaries took root. The nickname in turn was inspired by the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, where pot use is tolerated.

At one point, the Oaksterdam neighborhood had at least 15 clubs and coffee shops selling pot, a number that dwindled to four when the city started issuing permits and collecting taxes from them a few years ago.

California was the first of a dozen states that have legalized marijuana use for patients with a doctor's recommendation. Despite periodic raids by federal drug agents and the threat of prosecution, clubs and cooperatives where customers can buy the drug of their choice have proliferated; California has 300 to 400, according to advocacy groups.

Entry-level workers are paid a little more than minimum wage, while "bud tenders," can make over $50,000 a year, and owners and top managers more than $100,000, Lee said. But there's also a certain amount of risk - and not just financial, but legal.

Michael Chapman, an assistant agent in charge with the Drug Enforcement Agency's San Francisco office, said authorities are aware of Oaksterdam U and don't see any reason to shut it down. Talking about marijuana is not illegal, and while a small amount of pot is kept on the premises, the DEA tries "to concentrate our case work on the most significant violators," he said.

Still, Chapman said he doesn't like Lee's effort to wrap cannabis education in a cap and gown.

"I think they are sending the wrong message out to the community and it's something that could only facilitate criminal behavior," he said.

[Swansonite]

Whats up coach? I know being an EX-Coach youre more concerned for all that healthy ******** than I probably am. However, the health debate is getting kinda old. Anything can kill you, & no one can avoid ill health. take a second, and look at the vast taxable potential marijuana holds, nationwide. That **** would fund all sorts of government expendetures, especially schools, roads, schollarships, you dream it, weed can pay for it. Prisons and over-crowded county jails would enjoy more space for real crimminals, simply due to the fact, of the lack, of petty pot perpatrators. more cancer treatment patients accross the country would have a healthier and less painful kemo recovery, or the ultimate battle itself.
the abundance of pot entrapenuers flooding the market, new uses in more regions for farmers, and land owners alike, ...Think that **** wont boost the economy? Oh,... Also, as a father, proud buisness owner, taxpayer, "pot-head", and damn fine American, I dont find any thing wrong with employing some one who smokes weed, even at lunch! A Happy Worker Is A Good Worker! Plus, how many corperate professionals,or hospital employee's get a helluva good buz on during lunch break? dont know? go to a BAR for lunch one day, not to a ''pub &grill''. the benefits of marijuana and possible commercialization, far exeed those of the negative qualities, those tiny little crumbs of bebate held on too by the muther ****** yuppies. you wouldnt think they'd give all the money and majority vote to the sheltered, ignorant folk,... but they did. thnx 4 yr time!!

[mainemade]

Excuse me exCoach, you misunderstood my post. Where in my post does it say "High I am a pothead?" It doesn''t. So sorry there is no hot air coming from my blunt. I will say that if my nephew had of smoked pot instead of some chemical pill to counteract his chemo nausea he would have all his joints in his body. As it stands now this 24 yr old kid has had to have 2 hip replacements, 2 elbow replacements and his shoulder replaced because the pill anti nausea ate his bones. He himself has said he wished he''d of tried pot instead but because it was illegal he didn''t want to to that path.

[rushman71]

Honestly, has anyone been in a car accident with someone who has been stoned.......anyone.......hello......anyone out there........as I thought. I rest my case.
You cannot compare a person being drunk with a person who is high. In any situation. When you are driving stoned, in some cases, you would develope a minor case of paranoia, which makes you catiously drive, keeping your eyes EVERYWHERE, and always feeling like a cop is right on your arse. And I agree with bobnjersey. There are so many other people out there driving like a bat out of he11, talking on the phone, reading a book, etc. So, for people who are afraid of other people driving while stoned.......take a couple puffs and chill out, dude!!!

Puff, puff, pass...Puff, puff, pass!!!

Roll it up,
Light it up,
Smoke it up,
Inhale....Exhale....

[rushman71]

Duuuude, I wish I could go to school there. But Financial Aid won''t cover me. Probably because I''m white. But, man, that would be so far out, man, to graduate from a "high" school like that, dude................what was I talking about...................oh yeah.........brownies..........uhhhhhhhhhhh

[ianlou]

If pot were decriminalized there would be fewer criminals. But legal or not no employer should hire someone who tests positive. Too much lawsuit liability.
Posted by runningralph

That''s right, only the employer should be allowed to smoke it.

One of the old oil barons responded to the question of Prohibition with:
"I''m all for it as long as I can still get a drink!"

How about we make it legal for everyone but business owners. After all, their jobs are way too important to be performed while stoned.

[bobnjersey]

[Personally, I''''d rather not share the road with someone high on pot. How about having your doctor smoke a joint over HIS lunch hour, then perform brain surgury on you? Or did that already happen?]
[Posted by rf35 at 11:34 AM : Feb 26, 2008]

you are already sharing the road w/ a large contingent of folks who have less than ideal attention to the task at hand ... including eating, reading, attending to the kid in the back seat, putting on makeup, swithing the radio station, and talking on the cell phone.

cell phone use alone has been shown to be worse than being over the dui limit.

[rf35]

There is no research to support the claim that the affects last longer than 4 to 8 hours.
Posted by taylpatr at 07:26 PM : Feb 25, 2008

So if it is smoked at lunch, the effects last the rest of the work day and probably during his drive home. If he smoked it before work, it lasts from the time he drives to work until at least lunch. Personally, I''d rather not share the road with someone high on pot. How about having your doctor smoke a joint over HIS lunch hour, then perform brain surgury on you? Or did that already happen?

[slim1h2o]

Welcome to Oaksterdam University,

I like that name,,reminds me of Oakishpines.

Anyone have any chips? Got the munchies.

[taylpatr]

Google up Marijuana and lung cancer, May of 2006. It will show the results of a 20 year study on 200 people in L.A. Some smoked pot, some cigarettes, some both and some smoked nothing at all. The gist of it is that they found that people that smoked ONLY pot had a lower rate of lung cancer than people who smoked NOTHING. The results are there. Check it out. It show a pronounced LACK of carcinogens.

[excoachken]

To mainemade: Apparently you misunderstood my posting. I believe marijuana should be legalized for doctors to prescribe, but not as a smoke. When it is grown, the THC varies dramatically based upon where and how it is grown, and in spite of your protest, the market for buying pot insures that the growers are using whatever chemicals they need to produce a better crop! In pill form the prescription is very carefully controlled and adjusted by trained medical professionals. The problem is that smoking it is many times more dangerous than cigarette tobacco and the style of "deeply inhaling" these carcinogens has tremendous negative potential to overwhelm our already deficient health care system. An "open mind" needs to be an honest mind to succeed. Why can''t you admit that you problem with the pill form is that it just doesn''t get you where you want to go like your "home grown" product? It seems that your parachute is rising with the hot air from your blunt!

[taylpatr]

I feel I must comment on the comment about dope and work. In my 23 years as a Union Ironworker I can only think of one accident that could be directly attributed to smoking, but the man told me he had been smoking at lunch. He had the accident right after lunch. Smoking on the job is wrong. It is also wrong to deny someone a job because of what they do on their own time. There is no research to support the claim that the affects last longer than 4 to 8 hours. When an employer demands to know the contents of ones bladder or hair they are intruding on a persons own free time. If you want me to adhere to your rules at work, fine. But if I have to adhere to your rules 24-7, then I should be PAID 24-7!Owning someone for 24-7 and only paying them for 8 hrs. is tantamount to slavery. The insurance and employers have found a way to sc*ew you out of pensions and disability, and when a drug test is involved you sign away your rights before you even get your cup to p*e in. We can thank the memory? of ronnie raygun. When he started this in the 80''s some of us saw the writing on the wall. It''s been hard, but a war always is.(Drug War)RESTORE WORKERS RIGHTS!REFUSE TO PI*S!

[hypnotoad72]

"Shiva" - interesting brand name. :)

[briannorwood]

I was going to post something here, but instead I got high!

[ethamm]

Leagalize it and worry about the other drugs that have our children in thier grips! Over the counter and family medicine cabinets Have the best chance of hurting them! not to mention our nations money problems would just about go away!

[dowjones20k]

This nation accepts tobacco use, despite its death grip on its users. This nation accepts alcohol use despite the prohibition act.

Posted by oneturdyone at 05:31 PM : Feb 25, 2008

I would respectfully disagree with your position that the US accepts tobacco ... the do gooders are trying to irradicate smoking and soon it will be illegal to smoke in your own home .. California passed a law that says you cant smoke in your car if you have kids ..

As for alcohol they stick thier heads in the sand .. and we all know the trajedy of young adults crashing the car and killing each other ..

Dope is dope .. huge insurance liability for dope smokers who go to work .. it will never be legalized in the workplace ...

[random_radar]

The biggest problem with outlawing everything is that you need a Police State to enforce it. If you want to give up all your freedom to live in a safe, sanitized society, well, you are in luck.

But if you yearn for the good old days of liberty and risk, you won''t get that back without a revolution. Our nation is in the grip of do-gooders who will not give up their power over your life without a fight--as in killing and bloodshed. Yes, they care so much about your welfare that they will kill you.

[gkc99]

"This is why parents need to supplement their children''''s education with heavy religious instruction, they''''ll become pot headed incompetents if they don''''t. "--Posted by denn034


Let''s see, pot headed incompetents if they don''t, religious zombies, Christo-taliban if they do. People who think Pat Robertson discusses with God who the next president will be. People who think Jerry Falwell is an agent of the Creator.

Nope, forget the religious BS and go with the pot!

[gunownerdan]

Marijuana has been illegal for over 70 years and today it is America''s #1 cash crop.
This means dangerous drug gangs, drug dealers, and even terrorists are making BILLIONS of dollars each year because of their monopoly on all profits from the black market.
STOP THE MADNESS!
www.MPP.org

[bobnjersey]

[Don''''t people have reasonable priorities?}
[Posted by jsilver2th at 04:52 PM : Feb 25, 2008]

i used to know a john silvertooth that lived in las vegas ... might this be you?

[oneturdyone]

I can''t believe this argument is still on going after close to 50 years after the sixties, and more than 60 years since pot was declared illegal by racist federal law makers.

This nation accepts tobacco use, despite its death grip on its users. This nation accepts alcohol use despite the prohibition act. So when the bloody bell is the prohibition of THC going to be lifted? Is the lack of forward progress in this due to the pacifist state of mind of the majority of users?