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Public Interest
Michigan wants to be a leader in marijuana education, but the feds stand in the way
Updated: Mar. 14, 2022, 3:04 p.m.
Lake Superior State University cannabis chemistry program
By Bonno
Michigan college students can learn about marijuana in classrooms and labs, they just can’t touch it
The Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA), as well as market insiders and universities, want students to learn about marijuana chemistry and horticulture so they can join and improve the state’s legal $2 billion industry, but the federal government remains in the way.
Marijuana is legal in Michigan, as well as 30-plus other states (at least for medical use), yet the federal government still classifies it as a banned and illegal schedule 1 substance. Since universities accept federal money, they’re hesitant to implement courses, degrees or certificates focused on marijuana.
“If a university was working with regulated material -- so federally defined as marijuana with higher THC concentrations -- yes, there is a risk the (Drug Enforcement Agency) could come in and do bad things,” said Benjamin Southwell, an assistant Lake Superior State University chemistry professor who helped create the college’s cannabis chemistry degree program, the first of its kind in Michigan. “The industry has been blossoming across the state, it’s doing really great things, but in a strict federal law interpretation, the whole thing is illegal.”
The MRA on March 7, created a new license type that allows universities to purchase marijuana or produce their own for educational purposes. Southwell hopes it will nudge the federal government toward marijuana legalization, especially for educational purposes. Currently, he said, even with the new license type, it’s “a bit of a gray area.”
The DEA does issue permission for specific marijuana research studies by researchers, but the marijuana has to come from DEA-approved suppliers, of which there has only been one since 1968. The DEA last year indicated it would be adding more. None of them are licensed Michigan businesses.
“Any teaching institution that wants to utilize marijuana for teaching activities needs to apply with the DEA as an analytical laboratory,” according to an agency statement emailed to MLive by DEA spokesman Brian McNeal. The “DEA does have a teaching institution registration, however it is limited to Schedules II-V substances and does not authorize activities for Schedule I controlled substances.”
For more than a year, MRA Director Andrew Brisbo said he’s been thinking about how the MRA could play a role in positioning Michigan as a leader in cannabis education.
“I had a productive discussion early on with the DEA about potential for DEA registration to be issued to post-secondary schools if there was also an underlying state license,” Brisbo said. “And then they can be protected from any concerns about federal interference in their cannabis degree programs and could actually give students opportunities to touch plants and engage with products that are actually available in the market.”
The license allows schools to procure, grow, process, study and eventually destroy marijuana products, but there’s one possible hitch: the license won’t be issued without the DEA’s blessing.
“A licensee must provide proof of registration to the (DEA) before engaging in any licensed activity,” the MRA rules say.
Lake Superior State University is the only in Michigan offering a full degree in cannabis studies. Northern Michigan University offers various cannabis certificate programs and the University of Michigan in 2019 launched at least one course focused on the plant.
Since marijuana is illegal on any public university campus due to current federal law, Lake Superior State University uses a workaround: hemp.
Hemp and marijuana are the same plant, cannabis, just defined differently by regulatory agencies. Hemp is considered cannabis with less than .3% THC, the psychoactive compound that causes a high. Marijuana is everything else, but genetically, they’re the same, Southwell said.
The extent of marijuana available to Northern Michigan University students is a “speck on a slide” that’s used for chemical analysis, said university spokesman Derek Hall. He said students learn the “exact same skills” used in Michigan’s cannabis industry, but they “might use thimbleberries or whatever plants are similar.”
“The reason academic institutions lean that way is to avoid some federal pushback related mostly to financial aid,” Southwell said. “We don’t want to interfere with out students being able to receive grants and loans from the federal government.
“So we’re still not able -- and no university is currently able -- to work with marijuana without a DEA registration, so most of our program is working with cannabis that has THC concentrations below 3%. It looks exactly the same, extracts exactly the same, it just has that one chemical that is in a lower concentration.”
Lake Superior State University’s program is a three-tiered program It includes testing for contaminates, terpenes and potency, similar to the state-licensed labs, extraction techniques and growing.
“Growing is the one we’re currently working on,” Southwell said of the program that began in 2019. “We have an indoor grow facility that’s currently being renovated and we’ve done some work in our indoor greenhouse.”
Until the university can secure a DEA registration, the grow will focus on hemp. When student conducting testing come across hemp that is technically marijuana with above the allowable THC limits, it’s immediately destroyed, Southwell said.
Similarly, Northern Michigan University students learning about marijuana aren’t able to work with it.
The new license doesn’t totally clear the way for students to test products purchased from local marijuana dispensaries or grow hundreds of plants, but Southwell believes the intent of the license is an “incremental step” in that direction.
“There’s clearly a need for some science” in the marijuana industry but “the academic side is limited rather drastically by federal prohibition,” Southwell said. “This provides some legitimacy as we move forward with our federal applications.”
When and if Lake Superior State University students are given DEA permission to procure and test licensed marijuana products, they likely will, the professor said.
Students already test cannabidiol (CBD) products for potency and other characteristics and check the results against labelling. CBD is a non-high-inducing chemical that is produced from hemp and not tightly regulated.
“We have students who go to provisioning centers, gas stations or wherever CBD is sold,” Southwell said. “We can buy those now and we’re doing that.”
But it may take some action in D.C. before Michigan students will be shopping for marijuana, testing it for mold, metals or pesticides and ensuring potency labels are accurate.
Until that time, most universities are likely to play it safe.
“Related to cannabis, (Northern Michigan University) operates by the federal guidelines of the Drug Free Schools Act,” said Hall. “Any state changes are secondary to the federal.”
