What’s at Risk with Cutting Funds for Cannabis Research?
Money may stop flowing into 565 active research projects involving cannabis. The worth of these projects in federal funding is $320 million, which is just a small fraction of the total of $47 billion the U.S. government allots to 60,000+ separate biomedical research projects in various fields.
Among the 500+ titles that concern cannabis or marijuana, accessible on the NIH database, there’s a Colorado project investigating the ‘still-unknown effects’ of major cannabinoids THC and CBD, and a Californian study evaluating brain function impairment in teens exposed to marijuana. There’s also the biggest long-term study of brain development and child health in relation to cannabis, this one being conducted in Florida.
Other studies evaluate medical cannabis health laws, parental cannabis abuse, the role of prenatal exposure, cannabis treatments for HIV or as an alternative to opioids, and the list goes on and on and on. There’s pretty much hundreds of questions that researchers are seeking answers to, but their work could be completely halted at any moment.
Most Research Before State-Level Legalization Focused on Marijuana Harms
The thing that needs to be highlighted here is that it took years and years to get cannabis research where it is now. Most cannabis research concentrated on harms before 2012 - the year when Colorado and Washington voters blessed adult-use marijuana on the ballots. The idea to explore the medicinal and therapeutic value associated with the herb came later on. Out of the 1,200 marijuana-related studies published before state-level legalization began, almost none has looked at cannabis in an affirmative way.
By 2021, researchers reportedly published over 4,200 cannabis-related papers, and many of those projects finally started accounting the potential benefits of the herb. Science began to check what was once seen as anecdotal evidence only.
Joe Biden did not deliver on his promise to legalize marijuana during his term in office. However, one of the positive changes that happened under his watch was that the National Institutes of Health became more open to funding scientific research on understanding the health outcomes from using cannabis medicines. Understanding the safety profile of cannabis was another important goal. With the announced NIH cuts, where the federal agency would supposedly fund no more than 15% of “indirect costs” related to research - it may end an era of cannabis science that was just getting going.
The review process of new study proposals has already been canceled under directives of the Trump administration. Which means that any research regardless of what stage of approval it was is now void. The current disruption in cannabis research is happening despite Trump signaled he would be pro-cannabis during his presidential campaign.
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Stephen Andrews
