En Volá Launches Three Online Cannabis Courses: What Madrid Readers Should Know

En Volá turns long-running education work into three courses

Universidad En Volá is the new online education platform created by En Volá, a cannabis-focused project whose work has included science communication, answering audience questions, activism and public education. In its report on the launch, El Planteo describes how En Volá converted that accumulated experience into three online programmes intended to guide students through a subject in a more organised way than a collection of individual videos or social-media posts.

Simón Espinosa, En Volá’s executive director and a founding partner, said the project was designed to turn more than a decade of work into something closer to a professional and community learning pathway. The platform is not presented as a Madrid institution, nor does the report suggest that it changes the legal position of cannabis associations in Spain. Its immediate significance is the decision to formalise education as a separate part of En Volá’s work.

Never too late for education.

Simón Espinosa, En Volá

The phrase also explains why the launch took place now rather than when the idea was first discussed. Espinosa said the project had been in development for roughly six years. It was initially considered with Nicolás Leyton, who was then an editor at the publication, but was postponed because of competing priorities and limited resources. The idea remained in place until En Volá could give it a defined structure.

Three subjects, one self-paced online format

The opening catalogue focuses on three areas that En Volá says have generated sustained interest among its community: home cultivation, cannabis science and cooking, and training for people seeking to work as budtenders. The courses are delivered online and can be completed at each student’s own pace. The basic structure reported by El Planteo is as follows:

Each course is reported to cost USD 45, while a package containing all three programmes is listed at USD 99. Those figures describe the educational offer reported at launch; the available material does not identify examinations, formal accreditation, professional licensing or recognition by a Spanish authority.

The three subjects also show the range En Volá is trying to cover. One course is oriented towards cultivation knowledge, another combines scientific material with cooking, and the third addresses a role within the emerging cannabis economy. They are different areas, but the platform presents them as part of one broader effort to organise knowledge and support more informed participation in the sector.

The launch can be reduced to four figures that define its scale and history:

The project responds to information overload, not a lack of information

Espinosa’s explanation of the platform begins with a distinction between information and education. The internet already contains definitions, historical material, tutorials, scientific studies, personal accounts, forum discussions and social-media posts covering almost every aspect of cannabis. In that environment, the challenge is not simply finding another piece of information. It is understanding how the pieces fit together and which path to follow.

For Espinosa, an excess of material can leave people disoriented. Universidad En Volá is intended to respond by collecting the organisation’s experience and presenting it in a simpler sequence that students can follow from beginning to end. The courses therefore have a different purpose from the free material En Volá will continue publishing through its existing channels.

From isolated answers to a guided sequence

A video or social-media post may answer one question at a time. The courses, by contrast, are designed as complete learning journeys that do not depend on algorithms, audience metrics or commercial integrations to determine what a student sees next. El Planteo’s account of the project quotes Espinosa describing the courses as a way to guide students from start to finish, without the interruptions and incentives associated with platform-based content.

That distinction also reflects a practical problem for cannabis media and creators: monetising educational work on platforms such as YouTube can be difficult. En Volá’s answer is to separate the structured curriculum from the free public content rather than abandon the latter. The result is intended to be a more stable educational format while the organisation continues its broader communication work.

The approach rests on several principles described in the launch report:

• Arrange more than a decade of accumulated knowledge into a clear sequence.
• Keep scientific material accessible rather than presenting it as an impenetrable set of technical concepts.
• Preserve En Volá’s use of humour and an approachable tone.
• Respond to questions gathered from comments, emails, surveys, events, workshops and conferences.
• Use education to support professional development and stronger communities.

What the launch means for Madrid’s private club ecosystem

For Madrid readers, the local context is important. En Volá’s launch is an external, online education development reported by El Planteo; it is not the announcement of a Madrid social club, a new association in the province, or a public-facing cannabis venue. The report does not state that the courses provide membership, entry or any other form of access to a Madrid association.

Madrid’s cannabis social clubs operate as private, members-only, non-profit associations under Spanish law. They are not shops or dispensaries, and they are not open to the public or to tourists. Membership is a private matter decided by each association. An online course created by a Chile-based platform should not be read as a substitute for that process or as a change to the legal framework governing clubs in Madrid.

The Madrid connection is therefore one of relevance rather than operation. People in the city encounter the same wider problem identified by Espinosa: a large and uneven body of online material can make it difficult to distinguish an isolated explanation from a coherent course. But the existence of a structured programme elsewhere does not alter the rules under which Madrid associations make their own membership decisions.

The budtender course also needs to be read carefully in this context. The source describes it as training for work as a budtender, but it does not claim that completing the course creates a regulated Spanish qualification or guarantees employment. Likewise, the course topics do not amount to legal advice about operating an association in Madrid. Those distinctions matter when an education initiative crosses borders through an online format:

• Online availability describes the delivery method, not automatic eligibility for a Madrid association.
• Budtender training is described as an educational programme, not as a Spanish licence or official professional certification.
• The launch does not announce any change to Spanish law or to the private status of Madrid social clubs.
• Each Madrid association remains responsible for deciding its own membership arrangements.

A six-year idea shaped by the En Volá community

The history of Universidad En Volá is less a sudden expansion than a delayed formalisation. The idea had been discussed for around six years before the launch, with Espinosa and Nicolás Leyton among those involved in its early development. It was set aside because of priorities and resources, even though the underlying intention remained unchanged.

That delay helps explain why the platform is built around accumulated material rather than a single new campaign. The courses draw on more than 13 years of investigation, communication, practical experience and conversations with the organisation’s audience. The questions that shaped the programme came from ordinary contact with that community: comments, emails, surveys, events, workshops and conferences.

Espinosa said the organisation wants to disseminate cannabis science, educate with humour and care, strengthen its community, move towards regulation and professionalise the industry. The report sets out those aims alongside Espinosa’s description of the courses as being made with science and care. The statement presents education as part of a longer social and professional project, rather than as a replacement for En Volá’s existing media work.

What the available information confirms

The launch material supports a limited but clear set of answers for readers assessing the announcement: