Michael Yocina has been using marijuana since he first experienced it at the Woodstock Festival at age 16. Working in hydroponics and sustainable soil, his career had him working with HGTV, the Discovery Channel, and Hollywood celebrities.

Yocina’s business these days, the Cheektowaga-based Harvest Moon Hydroponics, was one of many promoting its cannabis products during the SUNY Cannabis Conference at SUNY Niagara on Tuesday. It offers whatever someone needs to grow cannabis in a greenhouse.

“I was like a gypsy with pots and pans on my van,” Yocina said, having lived in California, Florida, Colorado, Michigan, and Rhode Island. “I couldn’t come home until the 2018 farm bill (passed).”

The third edition of the annual conference for SUNY Niagara promised more speakers than ever and cannabis businesspeople coming from across the country, even some from outside the U.S. Day two on the main Sanborn campus featured panel discussions on the cultivation and business side, with plenty of other talks on health impacts.

Melissa Moore, the co-coordinator of the college’s horticulture program, felt this year’s conference came together very well, having worked to bring some of the top cannabis educators to attend. Those included the likes of longtime advocate Ed Rosenthal, Dr. Riley Kirk, Maurice Hinson, and Daniela Vergara.

“This year we grew it with even more speakers,” Moore said, with some attendees coming from as far as Vancouver and Brazil.

One participant who traveled far was Fola Akinmolayan, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who is on the road showing off his cannabis-related product Vukaya. The headphones and app offer different soundscapes specifically tuned to various cannabis strains for therapeutic reasons.

“I’ve worked in retail before I started this business for about four years, and I thought I practically knew everything,” Akinmolayan said, adding he learned a bit more about terpenes during Monday’s presentations at the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute.

SUNY Niagara’s cannabis curriculum within the horticulture program started with just two electives and has grown to nine different offerings. Moore said they plan to add more classes along with a cultivation unit and extraction lab.

Rosenthal, a cannabis advocate for the past 50 years and author of more than 20 books on the topic spoke on his experience relationship to the industry going back to the 1970s and autographed plenty of his books. The “Ganja Guru’s” presence here made this year’s edition quite different, according to Moore, with attendees really excited to be in his presence.

“It’s good that universities are looking at helping with it because there’s been so much misinformation about it and propaganda by the government,” Rosenthal said.

The conference was also put on by SUNY Erie, Genesee Community College, and Jamestown Community College. The four community colleges were granted a $1 million SUNY cannabis workforce grant in July 2022 to create short-term credential programs for the cannabis industry and to hold this cannabis conference for three years.

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