LIM College awards 450 Master’s of Professional Studies in the business of cannabis
In the past, cannabis received a bad rap as a “gateway drug,” but in today’s world, where a functional, multibillion-dollar cannabis industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the nation, Michael Zaytsev of LIM College in New York City thinks cannabis can instead be the “gateway to college education.”
“So many people I’ve seen over the years had a passion or curiosity for cannabis and in pursuing that, they were able to discover so many other things, whether it would be learning about science and biology, or learning about policy, or in civic engagement,” Zaytsev says.
It’s one of the main reasons behind the creation of LIM College’s new Business of Cannabis Bachelor’s and Master’s programs, of which Zaytsev is the academic director. Originally founded as the Laboratory Institute of Merchandise in 1939 to teach women about the fashion business and merchandising, the small, now co-ed college’s primary focus is still the business of fashion. But in 2022, it created the cannabis program following a highly popular on-campus event about beauty products featuring CBD.
“We just saw there was a lot of curiosity from our students,” says Zaytsev, noting the class filled immediately, in part because of the overlap between fashion and cannabis. “A lot of these things that we were preparing our students for, from supply chain management to visual merchandising to retail management to marketing and, of course, the cultural aspect of it all.”
The bachelor’s program is a B.A. in business administration that includes the type of core business classes students would get at any college, plus 30 credits specifically regarding the business of cannabis, designed and taught by active industry leaders from all over the country, including Jesce Horton of LOWD Cannabis; David Paleschuck, author of “Branding Bud”; and Dasheeda Dawson, director of New York City’s cannabis program and author of “How to Succeed in the Cannabis industry.”
“We brought in faculty from across the nation, from across the supply chain, so that students could get really practical, accurate and relevant information from people who know what they’re talking about,” Zaytsev says.
The first B.A. class will graduate in 2026, but the master’s program, a one-year, online-only Masters of Professional Studies course of just the cannabis credits, aimed primarily at people already in the industry or looking to switch careers, awarded master’s degrees in May to 450 graduates.
Marijuana Venture talked with Zaytsev about the program, its curriculum and what the response from the industry has been.
Marijuana Venture: Talk a little bit about the curriculum for these programs. How was that developed?
LIM College Business of Cannabis academic director Michael Zaytsev.
Michael Zaytsev: It’s like a hybrid. We want to give you the business education, and also the cannabis education, because something that I’ve heard in my almost decade in the industry, from employers and entrepreneurs and leaders, is that it’s common to find people who either have a lot of cannabis skills or knowledge, but not a lot of business savvy — or to find people that have a lot of business experience, but don’t really know or understand cannabis. So what we’re really hoping to do is give our students both of those, so that when they graduate from our programs, they’re coming away with not only the fundamental cannabis knowledge — which I’ve always believed is essential and non-negotiable to succeed in the space — as well as the business acumen of actually understanding what it takes to operate in this highly regulated and somewhat chaotic and difficult industry.
So it’s an overview. You get a little bit of everything, so that you can go into any job function in the industry and be productive from day one. That being said, it’s not what I would consider highly technical. So, for example, if you want to be a cultivator or work in extraction, we are going over the processes, and you’re learning the economics of how things move through the supply chain, but you’re obviously not going to learn how to be a master grower in one course.
We have specific classes on the business of cultivation and manufacturing, we have a cannabis supply chain course, we have a regulatory compliance course, we have a marketing course, a retail course and an equity and justice course. And we’re actively adding electives, so we’re working on corporate social responsibility and we’re working on hemp textiles and a sustainability-related course. I hope that we will be adding a cannabis finance-related course that gets into the difficulties of raising money and taxes and all that stuff.
It’s meant to be a broad overview, so it’s not New York specific. In these courses, you’re getting a perspective on the different markets.
MV: How do you deal with the cannabis industry being several smaller industries under a larger umbrella?
MZ: Yeah, that’s a great question. First and foremost, the way we approach it is we want to give our students really good background knowledge so that whatever market they’re in, they can separate the myths and the common misinformation from the objective truth, because I believe there is an objective truth for a lot of these things.
Second, on the business side of things, it’s the core skill sets of knowing how to read and write well, how to be professional, how to show up on time and present yourself well, how to be trustworthy and reliable. I am reluctant to call them soft skills, but I think professionalism goes a long way, especially in this industry where things are sometimes messy and disorganized.
The third thing is the mentorship, having the relationship with faculty members, who are active operators in the industry and can offer not only the wisdom of their experiences, but also their network and the connections that come of that.
I think we’re offering something that will leave our students well prepared to have a strong foundation that they can then build on with real-world experience on the job.
Among this year’s Maser’s program graduates were (left to right): Laura Matlin, Celeste Hernandez, Adjwoa Hogue, Jermisha Collins, Reiana Williams, Angelika Martinez-McGhee, Kim Burnett, Timothy Langhorne, Demetri Loukeris and Shandel Garner.
MV: When you’ve reached out to industry professionals to explain what you’re doing with this program, what has the response been like?
MZ: I would say the response has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. I think people appreciate that this adds legitimacy to the industry as a whole. And the fact that you can go to a college and get a degree in the business of cannabis further destigmatizes and normalizes the industry.
A lot of these employers that I’ve spoken with, they’ve all said, “Thank goodness we’re going to have access to more qualified talent.” A lot of employers, when we first told them about the program, before we even launched and had students, were already asking, “How do I get interns from you?” because they all incur the cost of having to train people on the job. And then, when those people leave, they often have to start that process all over again. It’s a big burden for companies still experiencing growing pains and all the challenges of not having access to the normal resources that any other business would have access to.
MV: What is your hope for the future of this program?
MZ: Growth and having more students graduate and go on to succeed. And what I mean by succeed is really have careers that they love. I’ve been very lucky that I found my passion in cannabis about a decade ago, and I’ve been able to enjoy a really meaningful career through it. That’s really what I want for my students and for our graduates as well: to go and become leaders in the industry, but also to feel good about the work they’re doing.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.