[#item_full_content] [[{“value”:”SUNY Oswego’s cannabis studies prepares for growing business opportunities
By Mary Beth Roach
Marthinus (Martin) Koen is associate professor of criminal justice and cannabis studies at SUNY Oswego. He and the chair of the SUNY Oswego’s Criminal Justice Department, Roger Guy, created the program.
As the cannabis industry in New York state continues to grow, so do the business opportunities.
New York’s legal cannabis market is projected to hit $3 billion in annual sales this year and more than 600 licensed dispensaries are operating across the state, according to budpedia.com. It’s estimated that New York will add about 16,160 new cannabis jobs in 2026, according to the 2026 U.S. Cannabis Jobs Report.
SUNY Oswego, realizing the potential, now offers two programs to acquaint both matriculated and non matriculated students with aspects of this multi-billion-dollar business.
Its cannabis studies microcredential came out last year and a minor was introduced this fall.
The microcredential allows traditional students to add electives to their degree. Students who are not enrolled in the college can sign up to take classes to learn more about the field, growing the crop and managing or opening a dispensary, according to Marthinus (Martin) Koen, associate professor of criminal justice and cannabis studies at SUNY Oswego.
The classes are designed to give those who wish to pursue business opportunities in the field a much broader understanding of cannabis and a more overall perspective of the various aspects of running a business, such as supply chain management, customer service and best practices.
“When you’re trying to market it, when you’re trying to make sales, you’re understanding will be a lot more vast and nuanced,” he said.
“The last 10 years especially, the hard science on cannabis increased and we have a lot more nuanced understanding right now that hasn’t yet permeated the pop culture,” he added.
Koen’s team is also hoping to develop an independent study class that will help somebody who wants to apply for a license.
That the classes fill up quickly should come as no surprise.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are excited about it because it’s a new industry,” he said and they see an opportunity to make some money. Matriculated students may look at it as fun to learn about and stack on top of their existing major or minor.
According to the college’s website, students interested in a microcredential would take cannabis law and policy and cultivation of cannabis, along with two other electives. For the first elective they could select either the economics of cannabis or manufacturing, distribution, and logistics of cannabis; and the second elective would be either cannabis science, analysis, and well-being or cannabis and society.
The idea for a microcredential in cannabis studies at SUNY Oswego began in 2023, Koen said, as SUNY statewide was advocating for these types of initiatives.
Koen and the chair of the SUNY Oswego’s Criminal Justice Department, Roger Guy, began brainstorming on ideas. Catching their attention was the legalization of full recreational marijuana use in New York state in 2021 and the problem-riddled rollout of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management.
Guy and Koen created a Criminal Justice Elective called CRJ 420, called cannabis and society, to see if there was any interest.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that there was interest —a lot of it. Further discussions led to the microcredential, cannabis studies, which incorporated science, business and anthropological perspectives, Koen said. They were allowed to create their own prefixes for the classes, such as CAN 310; CAN 320; and CAN 420.
Yes, the 420 was intentional — it’s a slang term and symbol used to refer to cannabis consumption and counterculture — but it’s also meant to reflect that the course, being on the 400 level, is “very academically involved,” Koen explained.
The term 420 was coined in 1971 by a group of California high school students as a secret code to meet at 4:20 p.m. at a campus landmark to search for an abandoned cannabis crop nearby. The phrase has evolved, to say the least. It is now associated with cannabis use worldwide.
For more information, visit ww1.oswego.edu/academics/microcredentials/cannabis-studies.”}]] 
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