Dozens attend medical marijuana seminar

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Dozens of people attended a seminar Saturday with the Cannabis Career Institute to learn more about jobs and business opportunities in the medical marijuana field.

The seminar was aimed at people looking to possibly get involved in the cannabis industry in the future and was held at the Hyatt near Jacksonville International Airport.

President and CEO of Cannabis Career Institute Robert Calkin said they teach people how to create their own medical marijuana business, how to get qualified and how to find clients for business.

He says people are beginning to see the benefits marijuana can have to many people in our country.

"People are realizing marijuana is an alternative health resource and they want to be able to find something else to use besides pharmaceuticals," Calkin said. "They're seeing that children can benefit from it who have cancer and everyone that is advocating its use has pretty much shown that it's not a concern."

He says 72 to 80 percent of the jobs in the marijuana industry have nothing to do with selling or growing the plant -- that many people are providing products and services to the people who are going to be selling the marijuana.

Sara Robert is a student at the Institute and says she attended Sunday's seminar to stay caught up with the legalization process in Florida.

She says there are many reasons medical marijuana should be legal.

"Just giving care for terminally ill patients and people who are having issues that are not treatable with any of these other drugs that are out there," Robert said.

She says people like Demario Byrden are the reason why the drug can be beneficial. Byrden suffered from a tumor and he says medical marijuana is the only thing that could help him sleep at night.

"The tumor was very aggressive so I still had symptoms and wouldn't sleep," Byrden said. "I would use the medical marijuana and it would help me with the pain, help me relax, help me sleep."

Anyone interested in learning more about the Cannabis Career Institute can call 800-753-2240.