Gerald Grundy is hoping to benefit from the huge expansion of the cannabis industry in Pennsylvania by learning the ropes of the business at the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology in Media.

Grundy discovered PIT’s Cannabis Business Program in 2020 when he found a newspaper article announcing that PIT was now offering a degree in cannabis studies.

“After attending the zoom Open House, I received all the information I needed to know; this is what I wanted to do.”

Grundy was already familiar with cannabis growing up, using it as a way to manage his aches and pains from sickle cell disease.

“I was managing my pain so well that trips to the hospital had stopped entirely,” he said in a PIT testimonial. “ “It helped the quality of my life so much that I often forgot I had the disease.”

He was intrigued by the healing aspect to cannabis and has discovered even more health benefits these days, like its ability to create new brain cells.

​Grundy plans to finish PIT’s program and become part of the cannabis industry, helping other people deal with pain, anxiety and depression. 

He’s on the right track. The legal US cannabis industry supports 428,059 full-time jobs as of January 2022, according to Bruce Barcott and Beau Whitney writing for Leafly.com.

That’s a 33% increase in jobs in a single year. And it marks the fifth year in a row of annual jobs growth greater than 27%.

Cannabis is now a $25 billion business in the United States.

For job seekers, the industry has direct cannabis jobs like cultivation and retail sales, as well as indirect jobs that serve licensed companies or depend on legal cannabis sales.

Ancillary jobs include accounting, human resources, legal affairs, regulatory compliance, security, maintenance, and construction.

Other indirect jobs include cannabis media, technology platforms, public relations, lobbying, non-cannabis product suppliers, and industry associations.

The Pennsylvania Institute of Technology prepares its students for the cannabis industry with three programs:

Cannabis Business

With fully-online classes available, this program provides cannabis-based business education and prepares graduates to start their own business, work for a dispensary or grow operation, or transfer credits to earn a Bachelor’s Degree.

Cannabis Health Therapy

With fully-online classes available, this program provides cannabis-based health education as it has been shown that active chemicals in medical cannabis have provided relief for various illnesses.

Students earn an associate’s degree and qualify for either placement into the medical cannabis field or transfer to complete their four-year degree in healthcare, allied health, or botany.

Cannabis Horticulture

The Cannabis Horticulture associate degree program prepares graduates to start their own business, work for a dispensary or grow/extraction operation, or transfer credits to a university to earn a bachelor’s degree!

Through a careful examination of the botany, growing, harvesting, and extraction aspects of a cannabis agribusiness, students will be exposed to all levels of a grow operation.

Find out more about the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology.