Cannabis Career Institute teaches 'pot college' at Rosemont hotel

September 27, 2013 (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team has discovered a new gold rush about to take off in Illinois. With marijuana soon to be available for medical use, there are actual schools popping up to teach people how to make money off the once-illicit weed.

There has been a cannabis cottage industry for several years in California and more recently Colorado.

Now, in a kind of reverse gold rush, it is Illinois where people are clamoring for information about how to grow marijuana, cultivate it, package it, deliver it and make money off it without getting arrested.

And so the I-Team perked up when we heard a radio commercial for something called the Cannabis Career Instutite.

"CCI will help you become a legal medical marijuana patient, caregiver or service provider today," said the radio advertisement for Cannabis Career Institute.

"My name is Bob Calkin, uh, I started my own delivery service in 1988. I came out here from the East Coast 'cause I was in a band," said Robert Calkin, founder, Cannabis Career Institute.

Robert Calkin is the founder of this company called the Cannabis Career Institute, holding seminars that teach marijuana 101: how people can open their own weed business, from building home marijuana growing rooms to dispensaries and delivery services to marijuana cooking services.

"Right now is the time to jump on this opportunity before corporate interests get involved. There are many reasons to start a marijuana delivery business. Aside from being exciting and rewarding it offers a great way to be financially independent while meeting the needs of others," said Calkin.

"We're having people from Florida, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont for our new gold rush," said George Boyadjian, president, Cannabis Career Institute.

And on Saturday, the gold rush comes to suburban Chicago when Cannabis Career Institute will hold an all-day class in Rosemont. At $249 per person, the class promises enrollees a share of what school officials claim is a $600 billion industry.

"You must have a code of operations and it must be followed to the letter. Consistency is the cornerstone of a positive patient experience, and avoiding law enforcement," said the CCI video.

The pot college on Saturday at a Rosemont hotel will teach students how to bake marijuana into brownies, cookies and cakes, although for some that will undoubtedly be a college refresher course. School operators say that a successful medical marijuana dispensary will be able to make $10,000 a day and bring in a quarter million a year.

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iteam, chuck goudie

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