Tower Hill hosts online symposium on science of cannabis

Last week, Tower Hill Botanic Garden dove straight into the weeds in an online symposium that took an extensive look into the botanical science behind the cannabis plant. In doing so, it was among the first few major botanical gardens in the country to host a cannabis focused event, providing another example of how cannabis is being embraced more and more by mainstream institutions. 

“There hasn’t been a lot of mainstream horticultural focus on [cannabis],” said Jessica Pederson, Tower Hill’s director of education.

“There’s a lot of people who know about the horticultural components of cannabis but it’s long been not in the eye of the public garden world, so we felt like it was time to explore the horticultural components of cannabis and hemp.”

Founded in 1986, Tower Hill Botanic Garden is located in Boylston, and is owned and operated by the Worcester County Horticultural Society, the country’s third oldest horticultural organization. The 171-acre property features 17 different gardens, a number of greenhouses, and miles of walking trails that wind through woodlands and meadows. 

Last week’s event represented the first cannabis-themed event for Tower Hill. The focus of the event was to attract people who are generally interested in horticulture, as well as people whose interest in horticulture originated with the cannabis plant.

“There wasn’t much out there,” said Pederson in regards to other cannabis focused events being hosted by similar organizations, “so it felt like something that there was a need for and was worthwhile to pursue.”

The symposium featured a number of academic experts discussing the latest scientific research regarding the cannabis plant, including lectures from Dr. Monique McHenry, director of the Medical Cannabis Center for Research and Education at the University of Vermont, and Ernest Anemone, a lecturer at Tufts University who has been an instructor for several cannabis related courses. Examples of some of the topics of presentations include the “Genetics and Taxonomy of Cannabis” and “Cannabis in Context: Botanical Medicine in the 21st Century.” Approximately 50 people attended the virtual event that was spread over two nights. 

The fact that there were even academic professionals who were able and willing to speak at a cannabis event shows that the stigma toward the plant has also begun to fade in the world of academics. Even though no university has ever lost federal funding as a result of participating in cannabis research or marijuana focused events or organizations, this fear has been cited by numerous educational institutions in the past as a reason to avoid any involvement with the plant. 

Tower Hill’s cannabis symposium is just the latest example of local mainstream institutions embracing — or at the very least, acknowledging — legal cannabis. In the sports world, Worcester’s arena football team — the Massachusetts Pirates — have been sponsored by local dispensary Resinate for the past two seasons, while the Worcester Red Sox’s foundation recently signed a deal with Southbridge-based dispensary Green Meadows to jointly host events that benefit veterans. 

Partnerships between traditional mainstream institutions in the area and cannabis companies show how much cannabis has been destigmatized in the last few years — although it certainly didn’t happen overnight. Even in the first few years after legalization, it could be next to impossible for a cannabis business to find willing advertising partners, or to even to find a nonprofit that was willing to accept a financial donation. Organizations that rely on any sort of federal funding have been particularly fearful of potential ramifications of accepting money from an industry that is still illegal under federal law. 

While the stigma around cannabis in Massachusetts has diminished, strict laws and regulations still limit what organizations can do. The WooSox were quick to note that Green Meadow’s partnership was with their foundation and not the actual ballclub; Minor League Baseball does not allow clubs to have sponsorship deals with cannabis companies, and it's also possible that such a deal would run afoul of the state’s cannabis advertising regulations, which state that 85% of the audience of any cannabis advertisement must reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older. 

Similarly, Tower Hill was considering an event where artists would sketch various types of cannabis events live on-site, but had to re-consider due to concerns over the legality of such an event. 

Still, with the success of this online symposium, Tower Hill is interested in possibly making this event an annual occurrence or hosting future exhibitions that are focused on different aspects of the cannabis plant.

“We have outlined other formats that might work for doing educational programming on cannabis,” said Pederson.