As federal lawmakers in Washington continue to slow-walk — or outright oppose — the legalisation of marijuana, the budding industry is plowing ahead making crucial inroads with another institution of prestige to help lend it legitimacy: higher education.

Five universities — three public state schools and two private Catholic colleges — have partnered with cannabis education company Green Flower Media to roll out first-of-their-kind online certificate programmes beginning in June, The Independent has learned, with roughly two dozen other accredited higher education institutions also considering partnerships.

Despite the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) listing cannabis as a Schedule I drug off limits for sale and use by the public, 11 states plus Washington, DC, have legalised recreational marijuana, and 33 other states have approved its medicinal use.

In most of those states, marijuana dispensaries have been deemed “essential” businesses during the coronavirus crisis.

The US House passed a sweeping bill earlier this month that would reverse a rule prohibiting cannabis companies from using traditional banking and financial institutions, which would allow more small businesses within the industry to access money through the Treasury Department’s relief programmes aimed at keeping workers on payrolls during the health crisis. [Read more at The Independent]