Marijuana, long snuck on to college and university campuses for use in bongs and joints, is now being grown legally at several academic institutions across the country.
Eight academic institutions have obtained licences from Health Canada to cultivate cannabis for scientific purposes, allowing them to closely study the drug that was legalized for recreational use in October.
Some received special licences a few months before legalization and will be moving to licences with fewer restrictions in the future.
The University of Guelph is one of them.
Max Jones, an assistant professor in the department of agriculture, received cannabis plants several weeks ago after the school was granted a license in September.
Jones said he plans to study the plant’s genetics, optimization of growing conditions and the creation of a gene bank to be used by both researchers and breeders.
For that work, Jones has a license that allows the school to study cannabis tissue cultures — he does not yet have a license to grow the plant to maturity and must destroy the plants when his research is complete. The school will eventually move to a different cultivation license that won’t be as restrictive, he said.
“By having this on campus, we can train students more hands on,” Jones said. “We can and have done research at the companies’ facilities, but that isn’t practical because they are so far away.”
