“Quality training for the Cannabis Industry”. This is the Oaksterdam University motto. Founded in 2007 in the city of Oakland, California, this innovative trade school is devoted to training professionals of an expanding commercial sector, the cannabis and marijuana culture and commerce.
This is America, land of pragmatism and creativity applied to business development. And Oaksterdam U (as it is familiarly called) is a consequence of the vision of a trade and “political” entrepreneur, Richard Lee, an owner of several medical cannabis dispensaries.
An advocate of the legalization of cannabis, Lee conceived the idea of create a research center in California on the cultivation and horticulture of the controversial plant. It was during a trip to Holland, when Lee envisioned to replicate the concept of a local school, but adding it subjects related to legal, business and political issues.
Not surprisingly, Lee and Oaksterdam have provide an important amount of the funding for Prop19, the ballot to legalize marijuana in California voted in November 2010 with negative but very tight result.
“This is a for-profit business, we’re big fans of capitalism, but right now we’re reinvesting everything back into the company and the greater cause,” explained executive chancellor Dale Sky Jones, on Prop 19.
Oaksterdam University is an example of efficiency and profitability of American entrepreneurship: in three years, some 12,000 students have attended classes. With 30 permanent employees and another 25-30 part-time, its 2010 estimated revenue are $2 million.
Oaksterdam’s main campus is in downtown Oakland, but it also has campuses in Los Angeles, Sebastopol, and Flint, MI.
“This is a legitimate industry like any other”, says spokeperson Greg Grimala. “Everyone here is an entrepeneur.” Oaksterdam training plans have mostly two formats: the $650 semester program, with 32 hoursover 13 weeks; and $250 weekend seminar for intensive 12 hours.
Among the teachers of the courses you can find “cannabis stars” as Kyle Kushman or Ed Rosenthal, the “ganja guru”, an author of several reference books on cannabis horticulture. “Until marijuana is legalized, this isn’t an industry, it’s a movement,” points out Dale Sky Jones, reflecting on the current state of the sector and its possible next evolution.
Photo by Ryan Van Lenning. Galería original en Flickr
