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Sativa Learning: on a mission to provide cannabis education

Sativa Learning will launch its new online course which features expert-led content from some of the UK’s pioneering cannabis clinicians.

Sativa Leaning and the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society have partnered to develop a medical cannabis course that is accredited by the CPD Certification Service. Alongside providing a comprehensive understanding of cannabis as a medicine, the course will also cover conditions that the medicine is prescribed for, including chronic pain, fibromyalgia, epilepsy, anxiety, PTSD, Multiple Sclerosis and more.

Following a career in drug toxicology, Sativa Learning founder and CEO, Ryan McCreanor, who studied biomedical science at Queen’s University, Belfast, established the company on return to the UK after working with the Canadian Government on cannabis education.

“I was part of the first-ever Customer Care Centre set up to handle calls from the public on everything to do with cannabis in British Columbia Vancouver. We would receive calls from people wanting to understand the new legal rollout,” commented McCreanor.

“Vancouver had a very strong grey market – there were over 100 or so dispensaries operating which were federally illegal but were allowed business licences by the city. It was a very strange place to be at that time. When the legal ruling came, those dispensaries started to be shut down, and the new government dispensaries were beginning to open up. 

“There was a lot of change management and trying to help the public understand the new rollout of cannabis – answering calls on anything from people asking how to smoke it to whether you can you travel across provinces with cannabis, as there are different slightly different laws in each one.

“I then worked for the new store opening team. We would travel around the province every time a government dispensary was opening up and stay with the staff educating them on everything to do with cannabis, and speak to the public about what they called “non-medical” cannabis. So, a lot of it was education-focused in a classroom environment teaching people about cannabis.”

On return to Belfast, Ryan was looking for a CBD product for his mother who has fibromyalgia.

“I was very disappointed by what I was seeing online from a lot of the retailers – a lot of misinformation and false claims. Around that time there were studies coming out to show that CBD products were frequently mislabeled in their cannabinoid content, and sometimes contain heavy metals and other unwanted things. 

“I wanted to do something that would help the industry, using my background from toxicology and the education side of cannabis, to bring a level of credibility and trust to the industry. I decided to set Sativa Learning up as an online platform that will provide accredited courses for the industry so that people working in the industry will really understand what they are talking about. 

“What I am doing is paying very close attention to what is happening in more advanced markets like North America, and trying to anticipate where that is going and build a platform for the future of the cannabis industry. As an example, in British Columbia, if you want to sell or work as a cannabis retailer, you have to pass a government-mandated course. So, you need to have a level of education in order to work in the industry.

“I see this industry developing like any other where you need some level of formal, recognised certification to advance in the industry. We have had the course accredited by the Continuing Professional Development service which demonstrates that our courses have been created to the highest standards of further learning. A lot of institutions or organisations will require their employees to make up a certain number of CPD points per year, and a lot of healthcare professionals especially have to meet a certain number of CPD points per year, so we wanted to make sure our course would contribute to that if they do enrol.”

Due to ever-changing regulations in the sector, the Sativa Learning course is updated every three months by Mackrell.Solicitors as the course includes a law module that provides CBD law and regulation education.

“We are working with the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society to develop the second medical cannabis course, whereas the first course focuses more so on retailers, entrepreneurs and investors. The medical cannabis course is targeted towards medical professionals to give them an understanding of cannabis medicine.”

This course also includes educational videos from real medical cannabis patients whose lives have been transformed by cannabis medicine, such as Abby Hughes of PLEA – Patient-Led Engagement for Access and Alex Fraser of Grow Group.

“We firmly believe that the industry should revolve around the patients and that they should come first before any profits. We want to make sure their voices are heard.”

As well as partnering with the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society, Sativa Learning has partnered with the European Industrial Hemp Association with a view to releasing a course on hemp education next year. 

“The idea is to bring in true experts in their field and work with them to develop these online courses. We want to have education for all avenues, whether it is testing or extraction or cultivation, created by experts.

“We would also like to make our medical cannabis course available to medical students because, at the minute, in the medical curriculums across the country, there is no education on the endocannabinoid system. It is as important as many other neurotransmitter systems in our body.”

Sativa Learning is raising its first round of funding to increase its accredited course offering and improve its e-learning platform. Anyone who would like to register for the course can visit www.sativalearning.com/p/medical-cannabis-course.

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