Plainsman1963

Every student's effort goes to pot at school
07-07-08 | ColumbusDispatch.Com | Brandon Lowry

Like other universities, Oaksterdam offers wide-eyed students an enlightening classroom experience to spark their curiosity.

In this case, though, they learn how to greet DEA agents after a residence is forcibly entered and how to make the perfect pot brownie for a homework assignment.

And the diploma confers the status of certified "budtender."

Marijuana devotees pack classes at a unique trade school that teaches how to grow and process marijuana, use the drug in baked goods and manage medical-marijuana dispensaries.

Ilia Gvozdenovic, chancellor of the school, describes the non-accredited institution as a much-needed source of knowledge about marijuana in an age of misunderstanding.

"It's kind of like the wild West," said Gvozdenovic, alluding to the conflict and confusion surrounding the California law allowing the sale of medical marijuana, and the refusal of the federal government to acknowledge it.

"To me, the issue is we need better training for folks."

The school, founded in November, already boasts about 500 graduates. It stands in a part of downtown Oakland nicknamed "Oaksterdam," where pot clubs and cafes line the streets as in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where smoking marijuana and hashish is tolerated.

Just teaching people how to grow and use marijuana isn't enough to draw the wrath of the federal government, said Sarah Pullen, a Los Angeles spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"If they're not distributing, selling or cultivating marijuana, I would imagine they're not violating any federal laws," she said.

Because of the conflict between California and federal law -- and the vague wording in the state's medical-marijuana law -- some counties and cities have banned dispensaries or required a strict permit process.

Los Angeles has enacted a moratorium on the shops as it searches for a way to regulate them.

But with the White House changing hands next year, many medical-marijuana advocates are hopeful. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has indicated that he would take a hands-off approach to medical marijuana in states such as California. Arizona Sen. John McCain's would continue to back federal law and forbid it.

Federal drug authorities have raided more than 50 California dispensaries in the past two years but have barely nicked the surface. As one is shut down, others spring up, law-enforcement officials concede.

While Oaksterdam University may be doing nothing technically illegal, federal anti-drug officials are not happy about its instructors training new crops of savvy dispensary owners.

"It's too bad they're taking people's money and all they're teaching them is how to violate federal law," said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Actually, I wonder whether the students will remember to even show up for class at all."

There's a lot to memorize in the world of weed. For one, marijuana comes in hundreds of varieties.

So would a cancer patient benefit most from some Panama Red or Purple Haze?

Would some Bubba Kush smooth away that anxiety problem?

And then there's the problem of deciding whether to smoke it, eat it or drink it.

A good budtender would know, Gvozdenovic said.

"It's very similar to a bartender but for bud," he said -- like "a bartender, psychologist and doctor."

Marijuana activists nationwide see Oaksterdam University as a historic step toward legitimacy for their movement.

"We're in the midst of an incredible, evolving epoch," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Five years ago, this would not be possible and there would not be a need for it."