CAN 210 | PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS IN MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will engage you in inquiry about the intertwined social, political, and medical histories of psychotropic drugs, with an emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth-century United States. A core thematic thread that runs throughout the course is how ideologies of race, class, and gender, as well as their institutional manifestations, have influenced the socioeconomic, political, legal, and medical statuses of drugs in US society. Broader contexts of international 'wars' on drugs, foreign trade, immigration, race relations, and medical pathologizations will be engaged as explanatory frameworks for understanding the so-called 'reefer madness' and similar discourses leading to the criminalization of marijuana and other psychotropics in the United States, in tandem with their prohibition through legislation and controlled-substance 'scheduling'. The more recent movements to legalize and decriminalize cannabis in its different forms, for both medical and recreational uses, offers a case-in-point for how psychotropic drugs in society are entangled with matters of racial justice. By engaging with this subject through the lens of science and technology studies, you will develop core competencies in understanding the role of science in society, civic engagement, and justice-based decision-making.
CAN 230 | CANNABIS AND SOCIETY I | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course engages students in foundational studies of cannabis in context, drawing upon perspectives from science, medicine, history, sociology, law, ethics, and business. Students will receive a broad introduction to the plant's key facts, uses, status, and controversies in contemporary society, with attention to variations among local, state, federal, and international contexts. We will draw comparisons between cannabis, other drugs, and alcohol. The course focuses on developing students' competencies in critical and ethical analysis, dialog, and civic engagement. Students who wish to deepen their study of selected topic through a social justice research methodology should follow this course with CAN 231 Cannabis and Society II.
CAN 231 | CANNABIS AND SOCIETY II | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is the companion course to CAN 230 Cannabis and Society I, completing the two short-course sequence. The emphasis in this part II of the sequence is on social-justice approaches to researching topics in cannabis studies, and course content will include scholarly, secondary research literature that pertain to students' academic goals. Key questions that will be considered include: What is social justice research theory, and how can it be applied in cannabis studies? What are critical issues in the disciplines that require further research on cannabis in context, and what are key emerging lines of study? How can we determine various impacts--criminological, economic, educational, environmental, health, legal, and social--of the cannabis industry? (CAN 231 is equivalent to CAN 260. Students can only receive credit for one or the other.)
CAN 230 is a prerequisite (or co-requisite) for this class.
CAN 240 | COMMUNITY-CENTRIC DISPENSARY MANAGEMENT | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will introduce students to cannabis dispensary management within a community-centric framework. Positioning dispensary leadership as integral to community development, this course offers models for managing the cannabis retail environment to promote hospitality and engagement among employees, guests, and community members. We will examine the operational and cultural nuances of the dispensary business, taking into consideration community interests, consumer temperament, government regulations, and social equity. This course also covers the specialized dimensions of cannabis business management, including personnel training, compliance, recordkeeping, and product storage and processing, which are all critical to running a successful dispensary.
CAN 260 | INTRODUCTION TO CANNABIS STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course engages students in foundational studies of cannabis in context, drawing upon perspectives from science, medicine, history, sociology, law, ethics, and business. Students will receive a broad introduction to the plant's key facts, uses, status, and controversies in contemporary society, with attention to variations among local, state, federal, and international contexts. We will draw comparisons between cannabis, other drugs, and alcohol. The course focuses on developing students' competencies in critical and ethical analysis, dialog, and civic engagement. Through a major project, students will be guided through a social-justice informed approach to researching a topic that addresses the question of cannabis in relation to their academic or career interests.
CAN 265 | CANNABIS & 60S PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
For a brief (and some would say shining) moment in the mid-to-late 60s, a movement of disaffected youth, eventually called the counterculture, turned away from mainstream Euro-American society, its customs and mores, to embrace what it saw as a more a more humane, earthy and adventurous way of living. The recreational use of cannabis was pervasive within this movement, as was the use of "mind-expanding" drugs such as psilocybin and LSD (the latter of which was not declared illegal until Fall 1966). Such drugs, termed "psychedelic," in turn became associated with certain art forms - rock music in particular. While contextualizing, exploring and examining terms such as "psychedelic" itself, this course will emphasize close analysis of such art forms - music especially, but also trends in visuals art, and one representative piece of countercultural literature. In addition to examining such works in terms of form, content, and genre, we will situate them in relation to social controversies of the period -- notably, the nuclear threat, the US's war in Vietnam, and what Theodore Roszak called the counterculture's revolt against technocracy.
CAN 300 | CANNABIS, RACE, AND JUSTICE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course investigates issues related to race and equity in the recreational cannabis sector. It examines the impact of, among other issues, the industry's commercial landscape and concerns about 'Big Cannabis' as an emerging yet not universal corporatized model, cultural proclivities toward natural and preventive medicine as well as race-related disparities in the cannabis universe. The latter includes a focus on the various regional strategies to resolve disproportionate, race-based arrest and incarceration rates pre-legalization, social equity and licensing programs for cannabis entrepreneurs, teenage marijuana use and the overall state of numerous social justice movements to address these and other racial issues connected to this industry.
CAN 330 | CANNABIS, MEDICINE, AND HEALTH | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will explore in social and historical context the status and uses of cannabis as medicine, and the limitations patients face within a complex and shifting regulatory environment. Students will learn about cannabis as medicine from the patient's perspective, taking into consideration ancient applications, relevant aspects of human physiology like the endocannabinoid system, plant pharmacology, research-based therapeutic uses, medical formulations and modalities, and relevant health policies at the state and federal levels. Given the ever-evolving legal status from state to state and nationally, with federal legalization a consistent political topic, students will consider what is on the horizon for medical cannabis, as well as the role public health education has in helping its citizenry benefit from the plant.
CAN 390 | INDEPENDENT STUDY: CANNABIS STUDIES | 1-4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The independent study offers the high-achieving student the opportunity to develop a specialized course of study with a faculty expert. The goal of the independent study is for the student to investigate the scholarship of a particular sub-discipline of cannabis studies by delving into its theories, critical concepts and current scholarly research with the guidance of a faculty member. The independent study option is intended for students who have demonstrated a mastery of course content, and who would benefit from a sustained, focused collaboration with a faculty member in order to produce an independent scholarly project. PREREQUISITE(S): Approval from instructor, program director, and associate dean.
CAN 395 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN CANNABIS STUDIES | 1-4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Courses offered under this number will explore specialized topics in cannabis studies that engages one or more disciplinary perspectives. Topics will vary depending on the expertise of the instructor. For current offerings, see the course schedule.