Call it a sign of the times: McGill University will teach students how to grow the perfect pot plant starting next year.

McGill’s Diploma in Commercial Cannabis program launches in June and it’s meant to train biologists to cultivate cannabis, design strains, protect them against contaminants and understand the legal framework of Canada’s burgeoning weed industry.

While Guelph University has a cannabis cultivation course and there are college-level programs geared toward the industry, McGill is the first among U15 Canadian Research Universities to go all-in on weed.

The program comes as Canada’s biggest cannabis growers are turning to universities across the country for help. They need to staff their labs and greenhouses with plant biologists and a small army of experts to keep the industry rolling.

At McGill, professor Anja Geitmann says she’s been hounded by recruiters looking for qualified personnel for the past year.

“The industry was desperate; they would call me up and say, ‘Do you have anybody in plant science? Anybody!’” said Geitmann, McGill’s dean of agricultural and environmental sciences. “Now, we’ll be training students to understand the legal framework of the industry and give them specific expertise in cannabis.”

When Adam Greenblatt started working for Canopy Growth in 2016, the licensed cannabis producer employed about 250 people and was operated out of a retrofitted chocolate factory in rural Ontario.

“We’re on a hiring spree; we need lab techs, we need experts who can help keep us compliant with Health Canada’s standards,” says Adam Greenblatt, a brand manager for Canopy Growth. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

Now the company has 3,800 employees in Canada alone with facilities in the United States, Denmark, Spain and the United Kingdom

“We’re on a hiring spree; we need lab techs, we need experts who can help keep us compliant with Health Canada’s standards,” said Greenblatt, a brand manager for Canopy Growth.

“There’s so many weed firms right now that there’s a competition for the best talent. If you look at the explosion of licensed producers since legalization, everyone needs to comply, everyone needs to have quality control in place just to be allowed to grow cannabis.”

The program is open to students with a bachelor of science in biological, agricultural, or environmental sciences. McGill is offering a one-year, 30-credit diploma that costs $24,000. Courses will be taught by biology professors and experts in cannabis laws and standards.

In order to qualify for an internship with a licensed cannabis producer, students have to pass a criminal background check and get security clearance from the federal government.

One man who made legalizing cannabis his life’s work says it’s unfair to screen out candidates with a criminal record.

“The fight to legalize cannabis was waged in court, by people who’d been arrested for growing medical cannabis,” said Marc-Boris St-Maurice, who founded Montreal’s first compassion club in 1999. “These people fought their arrests in court and managed to set the precedents that led to legalization.

“If legalizing cannabis was meant in part to remove the stigma, this seems to just reinforce it.”

It was people like St-Maurice who risked arrest so cancer patients, people with HIV and other afflictions could access cannabis. This often led to their dispensaries being raided by police — and those raids working their way through the court system.

Court rulings in the early 2000s built the framework that led the government to start licensing producers in 2013. A licensed producer can’t be run by people with a criminal background, under federal law.

There are almost 200 licensed producers across the country — most of which have emerged in the 14 months since the Liberal government legalized recreational cannabis. What that means, for young professionals, is there are job openings in production but also with Health Canada and provincial distributors like the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC).

It’s been a rocky first year under legalization in Quebec. Though the SQDC sold 6,264 kilos of cannabis and generated nearly $15 million in tax revenue for the province in its first fiscal year, taxpayers are on the hook for $4.9 million in losses incurred by the pot shops.

Some of the industry’s early setbacks had to do with dwindling supply and one-time startup costs, according to the SQDC.

“It will fluctuate over the coming years; this is a new industry that has ups and downs as we have seen,” said Geitmann. “We’re looking at higher qualified jobs, good jobs: master grower, quality control manager, sustainability experts, experts in microbiology, plant pathologists, inventory and sourcing managers.”

The university will work closely with licensed producers, who’ll take on students for 12-week internships but also “share expertise” with McGill through lectures, according to Geitmann. She insists the university will hold itself to the highest ethical standards when dealing with the industry.

“We make sure our students hear from a great diversity of producers so the information isn’t monopolized by a single industry player.”