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UC Berkeley Launches a Cannabis Research Center

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]he University of California at Berkeley has announced the launch of the Cannabis Research Center—a new facility that will allow researchers to study the environmental and social impacts of cannabis production. The center will focus on three areas of research: policy and regulation, environmental impacts and cannabis-producing communities.

Van Butsic and Ted Grantham, who both work in UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, will lead the center’s multidisciplinary team, The Mercury News reports.

“This is a rapidly changing industry, and no one really knows where it is headed,” Grantham said. “We believe researchers have an important role in bringing independent scientific information to conversations around cannabis policy.”

Other universities have formed research centers and programs to study the health effects of cannabis use, including University of California, Irvine, which recently received a $9 million grant to study the effect of cannabis consumption on teenage brains. However, the center at Berkeley will be the first in the UC system to explore other aspects of cannabis growth.

Until recently, the bias against cannabis has prevented research at state universities, which rely on federal funding. Most cannabis research funding comes from the National Institutes of Health, signed off by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). The NIDA has a congressional mandate to only study the harms of cannabis and not its benefits.

Bustic, who has been studying cannabis for more than five years, said he initially struggled to receive funding and found struggles with regulations. He added since legalization, working with cannabis has become easier. This year, a small grant from the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix will pay for the center.

“I am excited to build collaborations with the cannabis industry, regulators and other people involved in cannabis,” Butsic said. “We are trying to make sure that the center is a group that can facilitate collaboration research beyond the university.”

 

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