Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are tracking 10,000 medical marijuana users for a period of one year or longer in order to better understand cannabis therapy’s efficacy.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded a $10 million grant over five years to the research team. They will be working with federal researchers, Realm of Caring and other nonprofits, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in order to collect information about dosing and delivery methods, chemical composition of the products, potential medication interactions, and other details of treatment.
In a press release, Ryan Vandrey – a professor of behavioral sciences and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – said that the goal of this study was to better understand the health effects of therapeutic cannabis. “We hope to give some initial information on what products are helpful or not, and which products might be riskier for certain populations or therapeutic purposes.”
He added that “under the umbrella term cannabis there are hundreds of products which are all very different and significant in their own way.” “We are trying to narrow down the scope, find areas that have real promise, and focus on them.”
In spite of a significant increase in research published around marijuana over the past few years, federal cannabis laws are preventing scientists from advancing science in a nation where more than 34 of states have approved medical marijuana.
Vandry stated that “we have access to cannabis as a treatment, but we don’t have the same quality of data we have for other medicines.”
According to a Johns Hopkins press release, the study will track a “nationally representative cohort” of approximately 10,000 patients as they “progress from cannabis naivety into a year of cannabis use.”
We’re tracking people with multiple assessments throughout their first year, with closer spacing at the beginning, because we assume that when people start their medical cannabis journey they will likely try different products to find the ones that help them best with their symptoms,” said Johannes Thrul. He is a mental health professor and project collaborator at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The National Institutes of Health recently announced a funding opportunity for a Resource Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. This would be done through a collaborative agreement to “address the challenges and barriers in conducting research on marijuana and its constituents.”
Multiple federal agencies have made removing marijuana research barriers a priority. Scientists continue to be faced with an expensive and onerous registration process to gain access to cannabis, due to the current Schedule I status of the Controlled Substances Act.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is currently reviewing this policy in response to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recommendation that cannabis be moved to Schedule III.
A Canadian study shows that high school students say marijuana is harder to access after legalization for adults
Photo by Carlos Grancia.
The article Johns Hopkins researchers to follow a ‘nationally representative cohort’ of 10,000 marijuana patients in a federally funded study first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
