{"id":41672,"date":"2020-03-13T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2020\/03\/13\/fire-damages-cannabis-institution-oaksterdam-university\/"},"modified":"2020-03-13T12:48:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T20:48:58","slug":"fire-damages-cannabis-institution-oaksterdam-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2020\/03\/13\/fire-damages-cannabis-institution-oaksterdam-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Damages Cannabis Institution Oaksterdam University"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

An early morning fire Sunday damaged the downtown Oakland buildings housing famed cannabis college\u00a0Oaksterdam University<\/a>\u00a0and the adjacent Patient ID Center, the school\u2019s executive chancellor confirmed to Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n

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Early morning building fire in downtown #oakland<\/a> at 1733 Broadway \u2013 @PatientIDCenter<\/a> in Oakland. Fire is out now, but burnt debris all over broadway. @OaklandFireLive<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/5bAHqw0euz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Leonard (@MattOakland) March 8, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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No injuries were reported and responding firefighters extinguished the blaze before it could spread to other buildings, but not before firefighters had to \u201cdrop in through the roof and put the carpet out on the second floor,\u201d Dale Sky Jones, OU\u2019s executive chancellor, said via text message.<\/p>\n

Both OU\u2019s physical Oakland campus and the Patient ID Center, which offered medical-cannabis \u201ccards\u201d to qualified patients and sold cannabis-related books, clothing and other ephemera, are temporarily closed while the damage is assessed, Jones said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime,\u00a0OU\u2019s offerings in horticulture, economics, advocacy, and CBD are already online<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Online classes launched two weeks ago, Jones said and closing the campus is something the university would likely have done anyhow out of an abundance of caution thanks to the ongoing and widening novel coronavirus pandemic, she added.<\/p>\n

Plans to reopen OU\u2019s Los Angeles campus on April 9 appear going ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for reopening the physical locations of the two longtime cannabis institutions in Oakland, which played pivotal roles in California\u2019s medical and legalization eras, it\u2019s too early to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are assessing the damages and making determinations in light of the fire and covid-19,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019re reaching out to our students before we make a public statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Jones, the fire started after an arsonist torched a collection of trash cans assembled outside (which Jeff Jones \u2014 a longtime cannabis advocate, Dale Sky\u2019s husband, and the proprietor of the Patient ID Center \u2014 had been asking the city to move, he said).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fire immolated a city-approved art installation attached to the building\u2019s wall made out of plastic and fiberglass, and then spread onto the roof of the building at 1733 Broadway.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a great moment for downtown for our building,\u201d Jeff Jones said. \u201cI\u2019m still slightly stunned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 2007 by Richard Lee, Oaksterdam University claims to be the world\u2019s first \u201ccannabis college\u201d and claims 40,000 alumni worldwide. The school\u2019s initial instructors included San Francisco medical-marijuana pioneer Dennis Peron and longtime author and educator Chris Conrad.<\/p>\n

The name\u00a0\u201cOaksterdam\u201d was borrowed from the name given to the surrounding area thanks in part to a permissive attitude<\/a>\u00a0that saw a number of cannabis businesses, including Amsterdam-style coffeeshops and Prop. 215-certified dispensaries, thrive well before \u201clegalization\u201d became a household word and a national movement.<\/p>\n

And legalization still owes much to the institution and those associated with it. The first serious effort at legalizing recreational cannabis in the United States, 2010\u2019s Prop. 19, was funded almost entirely by Lee\u2019s life savings \u2014 proceeds that went to the movement\u00a0before the federal government seized what was left in a forfeiture proceeding<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abandoned by politicians like current California Gov. Gavin Newsom \u2014 who opposed the measure and only later realized legalization was a good thing and a political winner \u2014\u00a0Prop. 19 lost, 53.5% no to 46.5% yes,<\/a>\u00a0but not before demonstrating that legalization was popular and stood a chance at the ballot box.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That, and teaching a significant number of recent and current cannabis-industry figures how to grow and what to sell, is OU\u2019s lasting achievement \u2014 even if the fire proves disruptive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt [the fire] will have an effect on things,\u201d Jeff Jones said. \u201cOur businesses will never be the same. Fires have numerous outcomes, none that are good, except change comes out of the ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELL US, would you like to take classes that focused on cannabis? <\/p>\n

The post Fire Damages Cannabis Institution Oaksterdam University<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Fire Damages Cannabis Institution Oaksterdam University<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An early morning fire Sunday damaged the downtown Oakland buildings housing famed cannabis college\u00a0Oaksterdam University\u00a0and the adjacent Patient ID Center, the school\u2019s executive chancellor confirmed to Cannabis Now. Early morning building fire in downtown #oakland at 1733 Broadway \u2013 @PatientIDCenter in Oakland. Fire is out now, but burnt debris allContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,1841,170,2081,72,1844],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41673,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41672\/revisions\/41673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}