A professor San Diego City College is teaching the first publicly subsidized cannabis course in California, despite the plant being legal in the state for years.

“Many people thought this is crazy,” Leroy Brady, the course’s instructor, told NBC Los Angeles. “This will never go — you’re teaching people to smoke pot.”

The two-credit Business of Cannabis course kicked off Tuesday with Brady, who is also the chair of the college’s business department, at the helm.

Brady said that when the dean first mentioned an interest in a cannabis business course, other staff at the college were skeptical. But as the profitability of pot began to increase with legalization, so, too, did the credibility of the idea of a cannabis class.

“I’ve been referred to as the ‘pot doctor’ or the ‘pot professor,’” said Brady, who is unruffled by the jokes. “We’re showing that there’s a way to make money in the cannabis industry. I mean it’s a billion-dollar business right now, and many corporations are getting into it. It’s on the stock exchange!”

Published: November 06, 2019