TULSA, OKLA. (KTUL) — Tulsa Community College (TCC) is starting up a new cohort of classes designed to prepare students to work in the cannabis industry.
TCC partnered with Green Flower, a national cannabis education and training company, to offer three online cannabis education programs.
“There’s a cannabis cultivation program, a cannabis extraction program, and a cannabis retail program because those are the most popular and in-demand sectors of the cannabis industry today,” said Max Simon, the CEO of Green Flower.
Simon says that nationally there are over 450,000 cannabis workers, and that number is continuing to grow every year.
When NewsChannel 8 told Luis Benitez, a TCC student about these programs, he said that though it’s nice to have options, these are classes that should be taken with caution.
“Especially for students under the age of 25, maybe who haven’t matured their brain to its full capacity,” said Benitez. “You’re going to be around people who use cannabis.”
“If you’re someone who’s easily influenced by peers or whatnot, just know that this might be something that you’ll get into yourself,” said Benitez.
He says he wouldn’t enroll in this program, but he’s interested in seeing what the job outcomes are for people who complete it.
“It’s important to realize that the cannabis industry is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry,” said Simon.
Simon says there’s a lot of opportunity for people who are skilled and talented to not just make good money but also build a thriving business and a thriving career.
“It can be anywhere from basically a standard agriculture salary up to multiple hundreds of thousands to be a lead cultivator or somebody in charge of cultivation management,” said Simon. “I think it’s a new opportunity for farmers.”
Simon says that traditionally, the cannabis industry pays about 11% higher than the median average salaries of other sectors.
While the students in these programs are learning to work in the industry legally, there are many who do so illegally.
“By 2022, we had nearly 10,000 licensed marijuana grows, and probably 85% of those we have since tied to criminal activity and criminal organizations,” said Mark Woodward with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.
Woodward said that because of their Marijuana Enforcement Teams, Oklahoma has gone from about 10,000 growers in 2022 to about 3,000 growers today, and that close to 1500 of the 3,000 are under investigation.
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Tulsa Community College (TCC) is starting up a new cohort of classes designed to prepare students to work in the cannabis industry.TCC partnered with Green Flow Read More