BELLEVUE, Neb. (KMTV) — Bellevue University will start offering courses in medical cannabis starting in June. University staff call the program forward-thinking.
"We tend to pick up on emerging career-relevant industries where we see jobs coming and to provide education for students to try and meet that need," said Mary Dobransky Academic Dean of Science and Technology, Bellevue University.
Dobransky said a medical cannabis certificate program will prepare students for a career in the medical cannabis industry, adding that it's an industry that is growing much like the general interest.
"It's very focused on legal medical cannabis and the therapeutic uses of it," said Dobransky. "We found that students have questions. They've been asking for more education in this field and so we wanted to provide some quality education to help them out."
The program will offer up to 16 credit hours, and is only available online. Students from across the country will be eligible to take the courses.
"This way we can gauge the interest of the students across the nation. See how it goes and make changes as needed and perhaps expand if there’s an interest," said Dobransky.
The interest doesn’t stop at students, those in support of medical cannabis said the move shows how great the need is for medicinal purposes.
Crista Eggers has been at the forefront of trying to make medical cannabis legal in Nebraska. She said it would help so many including those close to her.
"People with cancer, Parkinson’s, (and) children with epilepsy," said Eggers. "I myself have a seven-year-old child with epilepsy that’s not controlled by any medications."
University staff are hoping the courses can be a starting point towards getting more people educated about cannabis and should it be successful they’d want to see the program expand.
Classes are set to start in June, more information can be found on Bellevue University's website.
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