This story is part of “Fresh Priorities,” our cover package in the May-June 2022 issue of MJBizMagazine.

One of the hottest trends in hiring right now – removing college-degree requirements to make applicant pools more diverse – is putting the marijuana industry in an unusual position.

That’s because the effort counters another powerful trend: the emergence of cannabis higher education.

For years, federal marijuana prohibition kept educational institutions from studying the plant as anything but an illicit drug. But marijuana’s fast-changing legal status has changed all that.

Every semester seems to bring a wave of new, cannabis-specific courses and degree programs.

A Double-edged Diploma

The proliferation of cannabis education comes as many industries are reexamining college-degree requirements.

Prominent labor economists point to degree requirements as one factor in a system that perpetuates inequality. Less than half the U.S. population has a four-year college degree, and the statistic is even lower among people who identify as Black, Hispanic and Latinx.