Good articel about cannabis law education in the ABA journal- glad to see that it is now being taken seriously
“Some students go into it like this will be Coachella for lawyers,” say Benjamin Varadi, an assistant professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School. “But it’s really a deep dive into constitutional law.”
Here’s part of the article
Tricky to teach
Cannabis law is complicated—and so is teaching it. Law schools often do not have the resources to add an elective course and often lack faculty with cannabis law experience. Plus, these courses still fight the stench of stigma, with some seeing the study of cannabis law as frivolous.
Benjamin Varadi of Vermont Law asks his students to keep a basil plant alive to demonstrate the difficulty of cannabis farming. (Photo by Christina Hall)
“Some students go into it like this will be Coachella for lawyers,” say Benjamin Varadi, an assistant professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School. “But it’s really a deep dive into constitutional law.”
In the classroom, professors must balance theory with myriad practical and ethical issues embedded in the ever-changing state laws and federal regulation, they say. Intersections with cannabis law include constitutional law, taxes, intellectual property, real estate, the environment and workers’ rights.
Most cannabis law classes are directed at upper-level students.
“It’s a great capstone course,” Mikos says. “If you’re a 3L, you might have encountered already constitutional law, criminal law, corporations or administrative law. Now, you get to put that into practice and put it all together in a very concrete way.”
Different law schools approach the class from different angles.
While the Ohio State University’s 13-week course on marijuana law and policy is broad, Vermont Law’s popular three-credit cannabis law course focuses on blending agricultural law with business law and compliance issues.
To bring practical issues to life, Varadi’s students are required to grow a basil plant.
“Inevitably, someone’s cat eats it, or their roommate doesn’t water it,” adds Varadi, who practiced cannabis law in Oregon before moving to academia and is also working on a cannabis law textbook. “Those issues underscore issues with pests and employment.”
Social change
At the Southern University Law Center, a historically Black college, Marla Dickerson, managing fellow of the Cannabis Compliance, Law and Policy Institute, focuses on creating social change. Her course infuses cannabis law and medical marijuana law into the curriculum.
“There’s a lot of trauma around cannabis law for people of color. I want to destigmatize it,” says Dickerson, a past chair of the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion and the vice chair of the section’s Cannabis Law & Policy Committee.
Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite similar usage rates, according to a 2020 report by the American Civil Liberties Union. Those disparities have worsened in most states in the past decade, according to the report.
“I am really passionate about increasing opportunities, especially for people of color,”
Read the full article at
https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/budding-cannabis-law-courses-growingbut-not-fast-enough
