One City University of New York is kicking off a new cannabis minor degree program. News 12 spoke with students and staff about what's already in store.

Students at Medgar Evers College are bum rushing through the classroom doors hoping to sit in on one of the institution's new eye-catching offerings.

News 12 heard from numerous students and community members: they didn't want to be sidelined as the cannabis industry came to New York. The call answered after an initiative more than three years in the making is providing both access and opportunity.

There are four different sets of courses: business, science cultivation and growing, science formulation and testing as well as health and social impact.

Those are all aspects of the newly launched cannabis minor degree program now offered at the CUNY college. That program is not only for students at the Crown Heights institution, but all students at 24 CUNY campuses.

For Dr. Patricia Ramsey, a botanist and the first woman to serve as president of Brooklyn's historic college, she says the new lineup will be helpful.

"We want students to learn about the science, but we also want students to learn about the business aspect of it as well. The courses will have options in all of those areas," Dr. Ramsey says.

The new minor degree program housed in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, is all on the heels of New York joining a growing number of states legalizing marijuana and allowing sales of the drug for recreational use.

While the Introduction to the World of Cannabis is open for enrollment, there's plenty more to come as future semesters will allow students to choose from 13 newly developed courses.