Vermont State University Is Growing the Next Generation of Cannabis Professionals

How a 12-credit certificate program in Vermont — and the remarkable faculty behind it — is opening doors to one of the fastest-growing industries in the country

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Vermont has always been a little ahead of the curve. From farm-to-table food culture to progressive environmental policy, the Green Mountain State has a knack for embracing what's next. So it should come as no surprise that Vermont State University (VTSU) is now home to one of the most forward-thinking academic programs in the region: a Cannabis Studies Certificate Program that prepares students for real careers in the booming cannabis industry.

And the story of how it got started is just as interesting as the program itself.

A Course Born Out of Frustration

About seven years ago, as the Vermont legislature was considering legalizing adult-use cannabis, sociology and anthropology professor Philip Lamy and several of his colleagues at Castleton noticed a troubling pattern. Cannabis misinformation was everywhere in the press — the same myths and misconceptions that had been circulating for decades were now being repeated, sometimes even by medical and mental health professionals.

"These were people who should know better," Lamy recalled. "But the point is, they didn't know better."

In 2017, Lamy proposed a new course called "Cannabis, Culture, and Consciousness," co-taught with Brendan Lalor, a philosophy professor who specializes in cognitive science with a research emphasis on fungi and psychedelics. The proposed course wasn't without its critics — some faculty argued it would become a "drug class" that endorsed marijuana use. Despite the objections, the faculty assembly approved it by more than a two-to-one vote.

When the course went live, it filled up within two hours. The dean asked the professors to expand enrollment from 15 to 20, then to 25. Even then, a long wait list formed.

"I've never had this, in all my years of teaching, where we had students say, 'Can we just sit in on your class? We'll even sit on the floor,'" Lamy recalled with a smile. "We knew we'd struck a chord."

The following year, in 2019, Lamy and his colleagues formalized that chord into a full certificate program.

Meet the Faculty

The program's success rests heavily on the people who teach it — a team with unusually deep roots in the industry they're training students to enter.

Dr. Philip Lamy, Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Cannabis Studies, is the program's coordinator and founding architect. Now in his 33rd year of teaching, the baby boomer came of age in the 1960s, when cannabis played an integral role in youth counterculture, and has long taught a course on the social and political movements of that era. His academic commentary has appeared in The Boston Globe, The London Times, Time magazine, NPR, and the BBC. He also holds a degree from Berklee College of Music and serves as an applied percussion instructor at Castleton — a reminder that the person behind this cannabis program is something of a renaissance figure. He's been candid about his own relationship with the subject: "I've been a longtime marijuana smoker, to be completely candid about it," he told Seven Days. His goal has always been clear: "We wanted to provide both education and training, hence the certification part of it, for students to work in the industry."

Jody Condon and Timothy Egan co-teach the Canna-Business course, which has become the program's most popular class, regularly drawing students from unrelated majors. Egan, who teaches at Vermont State's Lyndon and Johnson campuses, is a former New Hampshire state legislator who chaired that state's House Cannabis Caucus, and he brings years of experience in media, marketing, and green energy in the cannabis space. He also co-directs the internship program and has become a vocal advocate for the program's role in keeping young people in Vermont: "How do we get young people to stay in Vermont? Create a workforce marketplace that they want to be in and create opportunities for them."

Brendan Lalor, who co-created the original "Cannabis, Culture, and Consciousness" course with Lamy, is a philosophy professor whose expertise in cognitive science and psychedelics gives the program a philosophical and scientific dimension that sets it apart from vocational training programs elsewhere.

Riley Kirk, a more recent addition to the faculty, is a Ph.D.-trained pharmaceutical scientist specializing in natural product chemistry, with research focused on how cannabis and botanical compounds interact with the body. She is also the author of Reefer Wellness: Understanding Cannabis Science, Culture, and Medicine. Kirk and Lamy have appeared together publicly — most recently at Phoenix Books in Rutland — where they tackled cannabis myths, therapeutic applications, and what science actually says about potency and tolerance. Kirk's message is nuanced: "Many people are using cannabis to be productive. They're using it to get them started with the day." She emphasizes that understanding the differences between cannabis varieties — and aligning them to time of day, preference, and tolerance — is "incredibly valuable and also very unlike a pharmaceutical product."

Jonathan Kaplan teaches the cultivation course, bringing hands-on plant science into the classroom and into the field.

Together, this faculty team represents one of the most practically grounded cannabis academic teams in the country — not just professors who study the topic, but people who have worked, advocated, researched, and in many cases lived within the industry they teach.

What Is the Cannabis Studies Certificate Program?

Vermont State's Cannabis Studies Certificate Program is a 12-credit interdisciplinary program that explores cannabis across its full range of dimensions — historical, cultural, economic, political, legal, medicinal, and spiritual. Students also participate in the cultivation of cannabis and the commercial development of the cannabis industry.

The core coursework covers:

• Cannabis Cultivation — hands-on growing, plant science, and lab work
• Canna-Business — entrepreneurship, business planning, marketing, and industry economics
• Cannabis, Culture, and Consciousness — sociology, history, anthropology, and public policy
• Internship — 144 hours of real-world professional experience

There's also a practical bonus: the program includes Cannabis Employee ID Card Compliance Training, required of all employees in the Vermont cannabis industry. Graduates leave not just with an academic credential, but with the certification they need to start working immediately.

A Nationwide Model

The program's reputation has grown far beyond Vermont's borders. Colleges and universities around the country have been contacting Lamy, hoping to replicate his model on their own campuses. "There are lots of programs out there," he told Seven Days. "But none of them are offering what we have."

The numbers tell a compelling story: while just 55 students have completed the full certificate, more than 1,000 have taken at least one of its courses. Roughly half of enrolled cannabis students live outside Vermont and attend remotely — a meaningful pipeline that has helped the financially pressed Vermont State University system boost enrollment. More than 1,100 people are already licensed by Vermont to work in cannabis establishments. Yet the industry's demand for interns has outpaced the supply of students available to fill positions — a sign of just how rapidly the sector is expanding.

From the Classroom to a Career Pipeline

The Canna-Business course is where entrepreneurial sparks often ignite. Students draft full business plans and pitch them at the end of the semester to professors, classmates, and two industry professionals. At least one of those pitches became a real business: Oliver Duncan, a Brooklyn native who transferred into the program, launched Good Pot Co. in 2023, an outdoor cannabis cultivation operation in Addison County. Despite some crop losses from flooding, his business is profitable.

The internship program has placed students in a wide range of professional settings — farms, cultivation sites, hemp and CBD processing facilities, dispensaries, university research programs, law firms, nonprofits, and marketing and design firms. One student interned with the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, conducting research to help revitalize the state's medical cannabis dispensary system. Board commissioner Julie Hulburd said afterward that the intern was "not only interested and knowledgeable in the subject matter but also skilled in research," and expressed hope for future interns from the program.

The program carries broader policy significance as well. The Vermont Cannabis Control Board and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development have been actively encouraging social equity license applicants — people from communities disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition — and so-called legacy growers (experienced cultivators with little formal business training) to work with Vermont State University. Grants are available to help offset the cost of their education.

A Surprisingly Diverse Student Body

When Lamy designed the program, he anticipated it would draw non-traditional students — and he was right. Career changers, working adults, and people already in the industry looking to formalize their knowledge have all enrolled. What surprised him was the diversity of backgrounds. Some students have never tried cannabis themselves; others are drawn to the history, policy, or science of the plant. What they share, in Lamy's words, is "an interest in cannabis, and they want to find a way to find their particular area of study into the cannabis marketplace."

The program has also attracted interest from high school students seeking early college credit. Students under 21 are legally prohibited from working directly with cannabis, but they can complete internships at hemp farms, law offices, or marketing firms.

What's Next

Lamy plans to add a course on the medicinal and therapeutic uses of cannabis — a natural extension of the program's existing scope and the scientific expertise Kirk brings to the faculty. The history of cannabis as medicine stretches back more than 5,000 years, Lamy notes. "We're not discovering the medical uses of cannabis. We're rediscovering what the ancients already knew."

The program is also expanding its footprint. Vermont State's Resort and Hospitality Management program has begun hosting cannabis studies courses at its Killington Resort campus, opening up connections to the après-ski and hospitality industry. The university has also been asked by the state to become a certified vendor for dispensary worker training — a step that could eventually extend the program's reach to other states entirely.

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Vermont State's Cannabis Studies Certificate Program isn't just a credential. It's a career launchpad backed by a faculty team with real-world experience, strong industry relationships, and a genuine commitment to education over hype. In a field this new and this rapidly evolving, that combination is rare — and that's exactly what makes this program worth watching.

Interested in learning more? Visit vermontstate.edu/academic-programs/cannabis-studies or reach out to Professor Philip Lamy at Philip.Lamy@VermontState.edu.