Local nurse furthers education in medical cannabis science | Local News

Mott has been a nurse with Baptist Health Madisonville since 2014 when she graduated from Madisonville Community College with an associate degree in nursing. In 2015 she received her bachelor’s degree from Murray State University.

Mott currently works in the medical-surgical, orthopedic and COVID department of the hospital.

In the fall of 2019, she enrolled in the University of Maryland’s School of Pharmacy at Baltimore for a Masters of Science degree in medical cannabis science and therapy. She said this was the first medical cannabis Masters program in the United States.

“I am one of 150 students and one of only two people from Kentucky selected to participate in the inaugural cohort,” said Mott.

She said she didn’t plan on going back to school after completing her bachelor’s degree in nursing, but a friend emailed her about the program and she decided to take a look.

“I thought I was going to check this out because it was something on the edge and at the forefront of medicine,” Mott said.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures website, 36 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Island have approved medical marijuana / cannabis programs. Kentucky isn’t one of them.

Mott said she knew cannabis was not legal in Kentucky when she applied for the program, but was optimistic that the state would eventually legalize medical cannabis along with the rest of the world.

“I don’t know if Kentucky will be anytime soon, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” she said.

With more than half of the US states legalizing medical cannabis, Mott hopes a medical cannabis degree will help her stand out. She said she looked at jobs in states where cannabis is legal.

Mott said her ideal job would be as a cannabis consultant, educator and lawyer. She’s looked at jobs in Illinois and Florida, but she’s in no rush to leave Kentucky. If she gets a job in another state, she hopes to end up in Kentucky again at some point.

“I want to sit down and talk to someone about their illness or symptoms, what’s going on because cannabis is different for everyone,” she said.

Cannabis, like any other drug, is a therapeutic process, so some patients may need a lower or higher dose depending on how their body reacts to it, Mott said.

Cannabis is classified as a List 1 drug by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. According to the DEA website, drugs, substances or chemicals are defined in Appendix 1 as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and with high potential for abuse”.

Mott said she could pull out her textbooks and list different ways cannabis could be used medicinally – such as in the treatment of cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Currently, the federal government considers cannabis illegal, but laws vary from state to state, she said. Mott said more research needs to be done on cannabis, but the planning needs to be changed first.

“You have to bring it down on the schedule or get rid of the drug schedule entirely,” Mott said.

House Bill 136 was introduced into Kentucky state legislature in the fall of 2019, but due to COVID-19, it was pushed back and reintroduced in January 2021, according to the Kentucky General Assembly.

The bill would allow medical marijuana to become legal in the state, but mandate strict oversight of all parties involved, such as doctors, patients, pharmacies and caregivers, according to the congregation’s website. Producers and sellers would need to be certified by the state and the maximum levels of THC in marijuana would need to be set.

As a founding cohort, Mott said the university would initially select 25 applicants because they weren’t sure how much interest there would be. The program had over 500 applicants from 33 states and three different countries.

She said the only other person from Kentucky selected to participate in the program lives in Louisville.

The program was set up to be online whenever students drive to campus for a day or weekend once a semester, she said. Mott visited in the fall of 2019 to meet with other classmates.

“I’ve met a lot of people, then COVID hit and they canceled the spring, then they canceled the fall and we have a degree online,” Mott said.

Although the courses are online and conducted through Zoom, she was able to communicate with other classmates through Facebook, video, and phone calls.

“I met a lot of people in the class so it’s pretty unique,” said Mott.

She said the program was not geared towards a specific job but had nurses, pharmacists, doctors, lawyers and people already in the cannabis industry.

“We’re all just getting together,” she said. “Since we’re the first cohort, it doesn’t matter what career we have right now. We have to sell ourselves to these companies and create our own careers in the cannabis industry.”

Mott and the first grade Master of Science in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapy will graduate on May 21st.