This video of Emma Chasen's teaching, through the Sativa Science Club, is basic training for budtenders with an emphasis on the science of the plant. While directed to budtenders, it  is relevant to all those involved in the marketing and sales of cannabis products. She is Director of Education at Farma in Portland, Oregon.

The training of budtenders is about enabling them to be better able to speak with a degree of scientific legitimacy to a wide range of audiences, including those with medical concerns is of a high priority. She emphasizes in her training that craft cannabis is all about organic growing, sustainability, and education. Emma Chasen was recently named Portland’s Best Budtender of 2016 and featured in Newsweek and MG Magazine for her work with Cannabis and patients. Her mission is to educate people on the science behind Cannabis so that they may take charge of their own healing as well as to address the need for training and education of budtenders, medical professionals, and the general public.

After graduating from Brown University in 2014 with a degree in Medicinal Plant Research, Emma went on to coordinate Clinical Oncology trials with the Brown University Oncology Research Group. When her supervisor refused a Cannabis trial in favor of another expensive pharmaceutical drug, Emma quit and headed across the country to Portland, OR.

She found her way to Farma, the popular Portland dispensary that takes a more scientific approach to Cannabis; rejecting the Indica/Sativa binary and instead focusing on chemotypes to determine effect. There she has been able to study the plant and help patients reframe their relationship with Cannabis as medicine. She now manages Farma and helps to train staff on Cannabis science, research and empathetic patient care.

This is a production of The Center for a Sustainable Today and Sustainability Action Media (SAM). Videographer is Barry Heidt with editing by Tom Hopkins and curation by Ruth Ann Barrett.