Interviews and Articles

CCI in Austin

CCI held a seminar in Austin and Fox 7 News spoke to our Jeff Reidel about it.

Interview with Bob Calkin

There’s no business like canna-business! Johnny B. talks to Bob Calkin, president of the Cannabis Career Institute, who’s holding a daylong seminar to teach people how run their own medical marijuana business when the drug becomes legal in January.

Huffington Post: Cannabis Career Institute Hits Chicago To Help Residents Cash In On ‘The New Gold Rush’

With more and more states answering the call to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational use, cottage industries supporting the once-illicit herb are cropping up to cash in on “the new gold rush.”

Saturday marks the Chicagoland stop of a 10 nation tour by the LA-based Cannabis Career Institute. In the day-long $250 course, a release for the institute says students will learn of the “opportunities and steps toward business ownership and employment in the Cannabis Industry.”

The release continues:

“Cannabis is an industry that shows promise in the current job market. It is estimated that job openings in the cannabis industry have grown over 3,000 percent since 2005. Cannabis Related Business Ownership has also shown massive growth over the last few years.”

Colorado, which netted $2.2 million in sales tax of medical marijuana in 2010 alone, recently snagged $1 million in investments from a group that calls the cannabis business “the next great American industry.”

With a population more than double the size of Colorado’s, Illinois stands to rake in even more tax dollars when the new medical marijuana law goes into effect Jan. 1 2014.

Just days after Illinois’ new medical marijuana bill was signed into law this summer, Chicago’s first medical marijuana clinic was prepping to open its doors making it among the first businesses in the area to capitalize on the burgeoning cash crop.

At Saturday’s Cannabis Career Institute in suburban Rosemont, students will learn the ins and outs of owning businesses like a dispensary or a grow operation. Calling weed “the new gold rush,” ABC Chicago said students at the pot college will also learn to bake marijuana into brownies, cookies and cakes.”

BUDtender School Debuts in Las Vegas

Nevada’s first-ever medical marijuana school teaches budding business entrepreneurs on April 13

Las Vegas, Nevada – April 1, 2013 – The alluring smoky haze of medical marijuana could lead to euphoric profits for enterprising business people attending Cannabis Career Institute (CCI), Nevada’s first-ever medical marijuana school. CCI makes its Las Vegas grand “red carpet” entrance on Saturday, April 13. Read More

Reading and writing and reefer: ‘Budtender School’ to open in Las Vegas

While Nevada lawmakers debate the merits of legalizing marijuana, one company is looking at opening the state’s first medical marijuana school this month.

The Budtender School is expected to have its grand opening on April 13. Created by the Cannabis Career Institute — the second oldest marijuana school in the nation — the school will teach students how to establish and maintain a successful and legal medical marijuana dispensary business.

Over the past five years, the cannabis institute has conducted two to three workshops each month in 10 cities around the country. This year, the institute hopes to launch classes in up to 30 American and Canadian cities, all of which are considering lifting bans on marijuana.

Each daylong workshop will teach students how to grow and cook marijuana following legal and health guidelines. Though a variety of online and one-on-one classes, the institute covers all aspects of the medical marijuana business, from its operations and budgeting to the marketing and delivery.

This isn’t a class on how to grow a clandestine marijuana farm on Mount Charleston or conduct shady deals on the Strip however, insists Robert Calkin, who founded the institute in 2008.

The institute works with local law enforcement to educate people on how to grow marijuana legally, Calkin said. If state lawmakers approve Assembly Bill 402 — introduced on Friday — Nevada would allow recreational use of marijuana under regulations similar to alcohol.

“It’s coming,” Calkin said. “Nevada has always been cutting-edge socially and politically. It was ahead of other states on gambling and prostitution, and (marijuana) is a lot less problematic. Nevada appears to be on the cusp of approving it.”

The school will prepare entrepreneurs who want to start a marijuana business and others just interested in obtaining a job in the burgeoning industry. So far, the popular institute has graduated more than 1,500 people across the country.

If run successfully, a medical marijuana dispensary could earn a quarter of a million dollars a year, Calkin said. In neighboring Arizona — where Nevada lawmakers recently took a fact-finding trip — the average marijuana dispensary has the potential to earn up to $10,000 a day, he added.

“It’s quite a challenge to open a dispensary that meets all the legal criteria,” Calkin said. “But it’ll be pretty lucrative for whoever has the skills. And it’s definitely going to be a boon to the economy here.”

The local marijuana workshop will be Saturday, April 13, at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1340 Warms Springs Road in Henderson. Calkin says he hoped to have about 40 students enrolled.

The one-day seminar — between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. — will expose students to five or six marijuana experts, accountants and attorneys, as well a textbook explaining different marijuana strains and growing and cooking methods.

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/apr/05/readin-riting-and-refeer-budnation-school-open-las/#ixzz2PpREo7LA

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