So after graduating, I worked with students with autism for a couple years, helping them find careers that meet their skills and interests. I took my background in education and government and a passion for learning more about cannabis and started trying to connect with people that were doing education-oriented cannabis training here in Minnesota. I connected with a couple of farmers and was able to do some volunteer work for them. I saw very quickly, looking at states like Colorado, Michigan or Oregon, there’s a huge need for trained, skilled employees, but we don’t necessarily have the infrastructure to go about training them. I came to this trying to figure out what is the bridge that Minnesota will need and how can we help to build that. We started up the college back in 2020. A lot of what we were doing was focused on hemp since that’s what was legal. Our main goal was to help prepare people for the adult-use market.
What is the Minnesota Cannabis College?
The Minnesota Cannabis College is a nonprofit that tries to help people that want to become part of the cannabis industry, either as employees or entrepreneurs. We stand on the shoulders of giants, looking at other states with programs like Oaksterdam University that really helped to get that education to people. But one thing that we want to set us apart is here in Minnesota, we’ve got a big need to help remedy some of the inequities that came about in criminalization. Our main mission is trying to help people that are traditionally barred from employment or entrepreneurial paths.If you want to get a degree in horticulture, you’ve got to quit your job for at least a year and become a student full time. For most people who want to become part of the industry, that’s just not feasible. Our organization is trying to help fill that gap and give people the information they need at times that work best for them.
What kinds of classes are you offering?
We’ve been focusing on three different tracks. One is the homegrow side. While that’s a really fun side of the industry, that’s not really the main focus of our organization. We try to get people hands-on experience with the plant, but our main goal is employee and entrepreneurial training. We’ve done a couple of trainings looking at what the license structure and applications are going to look like. The employee training side has been a little harder because we don’t know exactly what some of the regulations around the roles are going to look like specifically. We also do a lot of online education, with pre-created online classes that people can do at their own pace. But our bread and butter is really those hands-on, in-person classes.
Are you developing all the curricula internally?
Our goal is to create it all in-house using best practices from operators in the state. I’m not skeptical of some of the online curricula out there, but we’ve seen in the development of our own curriculum that there aren’t really clear standards around what information people need to know to get jobs. So we prefer to work with some of the proprietors here in the state to figure out what kind of training they want their employees to have and work backwards from there — instead of saying, “Here’s our course outline. I hope this helps you get a job.”
Can you mention any of the local operators you’re working with?
Dr. Clemon Dabney is a big one, he’s been super great. Jamie Croyle at House of Oilworx. Mason Alt of Uniflora Holistics. The Granny’s edible brand, they’ve been really helpful on looking at consumer safety and how you can safely produce edibles and get them out to customers. It’s mostly been on the hemp side, but we’ve worked with a couple legacy operators. For example, at our class last night [the college hosted a class in Minneapolis on starting cannabis plants from seed], both of the breeders had been working for a number of years before legalization. While our goal is to promote compliance with the law, we also recognize that probably 80% of people operating in the state today are not doing it within our hemp program.
Is there any sort of accreditation for programs like this?
That’s something that we’ve struggled with a bit. We went through the review process with the Office of Higher Education. They looked at our curriculum and basically said that due to the amount we’re charging for our classes, which is below $100, we don’t need to go through the entire formal college review process. We hope that in the future there’s some sort of accreditation but unfortunately there’s not really clear guidance around what that looks like.
How many employees does the college have?
We’re a totally volunteer-led organization. We have a team of about six people that are our core, but we don’t have any paid employees.
So you’re doing this in a volunteer capacity? Do you have a day job also?
Yeah, I teach middle and high school social studies to students with autism.
Have you had any issues being a teacher who is involved in the cannabis industry?
As of Aug. 1 [2023], my boss knows about the cannabis college. Prior to that it was very much a “don’t ask, don’t tell” kind of situation. I would sometimes have a coworker say, “Hey I think I saw you on the news.” And I would be like, “Yeah, you probably did. Let’s talk about that after work.” What’s been so freeing since Aug. 1, and my employer would hate that I say this, but I’ve had so many coworkers that are interested in taking grow classes. It’s funny having your supervisor come up to you and say, “Tanner, what is live rosin? I saw that the other day and I don’t know what that means.” As of today, it helps in strange ways. We’re trying to start up a school store for my students to volunteer at and get experience and I’m the only person that has experience starting up a Square account for the cannabis college.
You also have a podcast, can you talk about that?
In the middle of last year, we started up a podcast called Northern Lights. Our goal is to help illuminate some of the unique stuff going on up here in Minnesota — being able to go to a liquor store to buy THC pretzels, or going to a concert and being able to sip a THC beverage in my seat. A lot of what we’re doing is interviewing people that are working in the industry about some of the stuff they’re doing and trying out some of the products. We started that as a joke but we’ve gotten such traction and there are so many products in Minnesota. So we get to talk about new ones. And I’m really talking about the news in Minnesota and trying to elevate some voices.
What’s your preferred method of consuming cannabis?
I’m a big concentrate guy. I really think dabbing is the best way to go. I have a Puffco, one of those portable vaporizing devices for concentrates. That’s my go-to method. I like edibles because they allow us to legally sell cannabis in Minnesota, but I’m not really an edible consumer myself.
Is there anything else you want our readers to know about your work?
The biggest thing is that we’re here to help. I love our classes and the books we put out and our podcast, but we’re also just a nonprofit here to answer questions. We’ve got our phone number and email address on our website. If people want to learn about how to start a business, how to get a job, or if they just have a bunch of homegrown and don’t really know what to do with it, we’re here to help get information out. We’re here to answer questions. It might be a day or two till we respond, but we’re here to help people.
Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
