Marijuana

Campus News Briefs — Fall 2022

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Campus News Briefs — Fall 2022 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Pollution’s Impact on Babies

Air pollution can alter the gut microbiomes of babies during their first six months of infancy, according to first-of-its kind ��񱦵� research. These pollutants — which can include exposure to traffic, wildfires or industrial zones — could affect the baby’s collection of resident microorganisms in ways that promote inflammation, influence brain development and increase risk of allergies, obesity and diabetes. The study was published in August in the journal Gut Microbes.

Palm Trees Inspire New Wind Turbines

In a move away from the traditional upwind turbine design that can result in heavy blades breaking in extreme winds, a team of ��񱦵� researchers — in conjunction with collaborators at the University of Virginia, the University of Texas at Dallas, the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) — developed a two-blade downwind turbine modeled after the flexible and bendable nature of palm trees. The team presented the results of four years’ worth of research with their SUMR (Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor) turbine at the American Control Conference in Atlanta in June 2022. The turbine performed consistently and effectively during peak wind gusts at NREL’s Flatirons campus in Arvada, Colorado, they said. The team hopes to continue its research with large-scale, offshore downwind turbines.

The Misinformation of Marijuana Labels

In the largest analysis to date of the chemical composition of marijuana products, CU-involved research found that product labels can be confusing or misleading to consumers. Brian Keegan, ��񱦵� assistant professor of information science, teamed up with three cannabis scientists to study nearly 90,000 samples across six states. Cannabis labels with categories such as indica, sativa and hybrid did not accurately convey enough information about the chemical composition of the product, the researchers found. Their study, which calls for a more rigorous labeling system, was published in the journal PLOS One in May.

Heard Around Campus:

“History set us up for a poor response to the pandemic.”

— Jose-Luis Jimenez, ��񱦵� distinguished chemistry professor and lead author of an assessment published in August in the journal Indoor Air that examined historical medical mistakes in respiratory disease research.

Digits

The Sharkive In 2018, the CU Art Museum acquired a massive collection of printmaking artwork known as the “Sharkive” from master printer Bud Shark of Shark's Ink, a printer and publisher of contemporary prints.

1976

Bud Shark opened his original studio in Boulder, before relocating it to Lyons, Colorado, in 1998

$1.35M

Cost of the acquisition by ��񱦵�, one of its biggest art purchases to date

~850

Original artworks in the Sharkive, along with over 2,500 related materials

Shark’s Ink prints on view in the art museum’s new exhibition

Four

Years of planning went into the exhibition

July 15, 2023

Date exhibition closes

Submit feedback to the editor

Photo by Kelsey Simpkins

Pollution and babies, palm tree-inspired wind turbines, marijuana labels and more.

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Fall 2022

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Migrating for Medical Marijuana

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 17:46:43 +0000

Migrating for Medical Marijuana Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/20/2019 - 10:46

by Tracy Ferrell (MEngl'96, PhD'01)
(McFarland Books, 237 pages; 2019)

Buy the Book

In the last six years, Colorado has seen a population boom reminiscent of the state’s first few years of settlement. But rather than staking mining claims or establishing homesteads, these new pioneers are on the frontier of an emerging science: marijuana as treatment for various debilitating conditions. This book contains personal accounts from doctors, researchers, and patients–self-proclaimed “refugees” seeking treatment unavailable elsewhere–who are at the forefront of medical marijuana practice. Their stories provide unique insights into a social, political and medical revolution.

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The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 17:39:44 +0000

The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/18/2018 - 11:39

By Michelle Newhart (PhDSoc’13) and William Dolphin

(Routledge, 280 pages; 2018)

Buy the Book

Michelle Newhart (PhDSoc’13) and her husband’s book, titled The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience, takes a comprehensive look at how patients negotiate incomplete medicalization and what their experiences reveal about human's relationship with marijuana as it is incorporated into biomedicine. Drawing on interviews with midlife patients in Colorado, a state at the forefront of medical cannabis implementation, this book explores the practical decisions individuals confront about medical use, including whether cannabis will work for them, the risks of registering in a state program and how to handle questions of supply, dosage, and routines of use. By positioning cannabis use within sociological models of medical behavior, Newhart and Dolphin provide a wide-reaching, theoretically informed analysis of the issue that expands established concepts and provides new insight on medical cannabis and how state programs work. Michelle currently teaches sociology and works as an instructional designer at Mt. San Antonio College in California.

The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience takes a comprehensive look at how patients negotiate incomplete medicalization and what their experiences reveal about human's relationship with marijuana as it is incorporated into biomedicine.

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Research on the Road

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 19:00:00 +0000

Research on the Road Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/01/2018 - 12:00

Trent Knoss

The most unorthodox cannabis research lab in Colorado is always on the move. You may have driven behind it on Foothills Parkway on its way to a testing site. You may have walked past as it idled on a neighborhood lane, collecting blood samples from a volunteer. The nondescript Dodge Sprinter does its best to keep a low profile, but you may already know it by one of its nicknames: The CannaVan, say, or The Mystery Machine.

A van that drives around studying stoned people! In Boulder! The snarky jokes practically write themselves. But look closer and it becomes apparent that the unusual project, led by CU’s CHANGE Lab, is succeeding where past cannabis research efforts have stalled.

Attitudes are changing and have been for a long time.”

“People always want to talk about the van, which is really just a mobile pharmacology lab,” said assistant professor Cinnamon Bidwell. “It’s gotten a lot of fun names, but it’s actually one of the most important tools we have to study cannabis use.”

Cannabis research requires a mix of creativity and caution. Despite Colorado’s legalization of adult recreational use in 2012, the plant remains illegal federally. Researchers at federally funded universities like CU may not handle, store, consume, purchase or provide cannabis to research subjects without putting their institutions in potentially serious legal jeopardy.

The van offers a workaround. After it arrives at an off-campus private residence, a non-CU-affiliated volunteer enters and completes a series of cognitive tests as well as a blood draw. Then he reenters his home, consumes a high-potency cannabis product and comes back to the van to retake the same tests under the influence. The result: A before-and-after snapshot that keeps the CHANGE Lab on the right side of the law.

“We’re able to add the elements of laboratory control that we would like to have in place without dosing the volunteers or providing the products,” Bidwell says.

Afterward, the van rumbles off to its next appointment with fresh data that will help answer key questions. But a larger one remains: Why is studying an important public health matter so complicated?

Hard Science

For now, cannabis has gained a nationwide foothold. Over the past five years, eight states have legalized recreational use and 29 states allow medical marijuana prescriptions. In 2016, cannabis sales in North America totaled $6.7 billion; they are expected to continue growing by 25 percent annually through 2021.

“Attitudes are changing and have been for a long time,” said professor Kent Hutchison of the CHANGE Lab and the Institute of Cognitive Science.

“Research has lagged behind significantly. And that’s the crux of the problem: Consumers with no information.”

Widespread legalization created a boom in readily available cannabis products. In terms of THC, the plant’s main psychoactive ingredient, several common marijuana strains average close to 15 percent potency — a four-fold increase since the 1990s. But cannabis edibles are even higher, and some concentrates can even approach 95 percent potency. With such wide-ranging options and little or no trustworthy science to refer to, the public is navigating blind.

“Research has lagged behind significantly,” Hutchison said. “And that’s the crux of the problem: Consumers with no information.”

Bidwell added: “In the context of a research study, nobody has assessed how intoxicating these products are or studied the effects on behaviors such as driving.”

Enter the CHANGE Lab. Co-directed by neuroscientists Bidwell, Hutchison and professor Angela Bryan, it began in 2012 as an outgrowth of the group’s interest in addiction and cognitive function. With cannabis on the ballot that same year in Colorado, they began exploring potential avenues for studying a drug with major question marks not only about its ability to impair, but also its potential to alleviate inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, anxiety and insomnia.

In the background, CU’s long, fraught association with marijuana loomed large. The school has worked hard to dissolve old stereotypes, symbolized by photos of a haze-filled Norlin Quad every April 20. (The campus is designated as smokefree and prohibits marijuana use, possession and distribution.)

Erring on the side of caution would have been understandable. Still, the CHANGE Lab pushed ahead with ambitious proposals, poking and prodding at the guidelines to find ways of doing meaningful research with one hand tied behind its back.

“We went back and forth with university leadership, and they were super helpful in terms of trying to problem solve with us,” Hutchison said.

The group also found a natural ally in assistant professor Nolan Kane, a CU biologist who had been pursuing ways to sequence cannabis DNA. Kane, who co-founded the Cannabis Genomic Research Initiative with postdoctoral student Daniela Vergara, wanted to create a compendium of strains and decode the plant’s genetic mechanisms.

“Cannabis is fascinating because it has lots of genetic differences, which is why you can do so many things with it,” Vergara says. “It’s used for hemp fiber, paper, oil, and the seeds are edible… There are literally hundreds of compounds that can be extracted from it. But without further study, we still don’t really know why it interacts with our body the way it does.”

Reality Check

Kane and Vergara had encountered the same frustrating restrictions, but hit on the idea of acquiring DNA data from independent testing laboratories and then partnering with a seed company to compile genetic information from sample plants. Third-party groups aren’t subject to the same restrictions as CU, and a spreadsheet wouldn’t break any rules.

In 2016, the duo (working with Bidwell and Hutchison) published genomic research showing that the common cannabis strains used in official federal government statistics average between 5 and 6 percent THC content, but those sold recreationally in Denver and Seattle average closer to 20 percent — a staggering reality check that made national news.

“In the context of a research study, nobody has assessed how intoxicating these products are or studied the effects on behaviors such as driving.”

“If you’re studying wine or tobacco, for example, you study the stuff people actually use,” Vergara said, adding that the research only underscored the need for up-to-date information on cannabis.

Legal cannabis continues to face uncertainty. Federal enforcement could change any time. Colorado lawmakers could enact new laws affecting recreational usage. Dispensaries and regulators maintain a wary truce. But the CHANGE Lab’s work has buoyed optimism that the underlying science finally could start catching up.

“I hope our efforts and our experiment designs embolden other universities to pursue these kinds of studies, too,” Hutchison said.

He's planning more studies designed to test hypotheses about positive uses of the drug. Cannabis may be able to help wean users off opioids, for example, or help the elderly with pain and inflammation. He also wants to examine cannabis use by military veterans to see whether it alleviates or exacerbates post-traumatic stress disorder, a divisive topic among veterans.

In 2016, Bidwell secured nearly $900,000 from Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment to study high-potency cannabis use with her mobile laboratory. The award, coupled with funding for Hutchison from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, represented a watershed moment for the lab. The van project officially had the green light.

Bidwell will soon have operated the van for about a year. Her team has started a crowdfunding campaign to acquire a second one, in hopes of expanding its work. Meanwhile, she hopes data collected by the current Dodge Sprinter helps fill the cannabis information gap.

“I think individuals are savvy and they want to base their personal decisions or personal medical decisions on empirical data,” she said. “Right now, they don’t really have that and so they’re grasping for straws.”

Photo by Patrick Campbell

��񱦵� scientists take a creative approach to studying cannabis.

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Campus News Briefs – Winter 2017

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 18:45:00 +0000

Campus News Briefs – Winter 2017 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/01/2017 - 11:45

Saturn Finale

The dramatic September end of NASA’s Cassini mission concluded a 20-year run aboard the spacecraft for CU’s Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS), which helped analyze Saturn’s rings and moons.

1997

Year Cassini left Earth

4.9

Billion miles traveled

294

Saturn orbits completed

$12M

Cost of CU-built UVIS

Moons discovered

453,048

Images taken by Cassini

9/15

Cassini vaporized in Saturn's atmosphere

Heard Around Campus

In Boulder you're more likely to hear the whoosh of a cyclist than the shrill of a siren...”

— National Geographic, which in October named Boulder “Happiest City in the U.S.”

A Legend Among Us

Dance Magazine this fall named Lorenzo “Rennie” Harris, an artist-in-residence at ��񱦵�, a “Living Legend,” placing him in the company of Fred Astaire, Pina Bausch and Misty Copeland, all past honorees.

A hip-hop choreographer from Philadelphia, Harris has received high praise before: In 2015, The New York Times called him “the most profound choreographer of that idiom.”

Harris is the founder of Rennie Harris Puremovement, a dance company that preserves and disseminates hiphop culture. He has taught at ��񱦵� since 2009.

Dance Magazine annually recognizes artists who have “left a lasting impact on dance.”

Twins Aid Marijuana Research

As more states consider legalizing recreational marijuana use, scientists are trying to understand how it plays out in people’s lives.

With a $5.5 million award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a research team from ��񱦵� and the University of Minnesota will assess whether legalization promotes use, for example, and try to identify the consequences of use for work, family and mental health. There’s little existing scientific evidence.

The team will study 1,250 sets of previously researched twins in Colorado, where sales of recreational marijuana have been permitted since 2014, and 1,250 sets of twins in Minnesota, where it remains illegal. Using the Minnesota twins as a control group, the scientists will look for behavioral changes in the Colorado twins since 2014.

“There is clear need for solid scientific evidence,” said study co-leader John Hewitt, director of ��񱦵�’s Institute for Behavioral Genetics.

The study could result in more concrete guidelines. Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize recreational marijuana use, in 2012.

For more details, visit ��񱦵� Today online.

Boulder named happiest city, Cassini's dramatic end, a dance legend and new marijuana research.

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Extinguishing the Thrill

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Extinguishing the Thrill Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/01/2013 - 00:00

Paul Danish

With the passage last fall of Colorado Amendment 64 legalizing marijuana for those 21 and over for use in private (not in public), it was the end for me of a long strange trip that began 49 years ago.

I was editor of the Colorado Daily when CU’s first big pot bust occurred in February 1964. A dozen CU students were arrested for marijuana possession and use. Several were arrested in the UMC grill. Keep in mind that in 1964 pot was rare and exotic.

My first reaction was “Great story!” I had just reworked the Daily’s layout into true tabloid, and the story was perfectly suited for it, so we ran with it. Not that we had much choice; it was a big story. But we were not judgmental or flip. The consequences were too serious for the defendants.

My personal feelings at the time were mixed. I knew about half of the defendants personally and I knew they were all smart and good students. Some had academic scholarships, so there was an immediate cognitive dissonance between reality and the reefer madness narrative. I was more shocked by the lawbreaking than the drug use.

Naturally, a media circus ensued, with the late Rocky Mountain News leading the pack. The thing that most outraged me at the time was the way the Rocky Mountain News used the story to trash CU. The father of one of the students was so mortified by the press coverage that he quit going to work and wouldn’t come out of his home. After a couple of months he committed suicide. Then, as now, the drug war produced a lot of collateral damage.

In 1964, marijuana use was a felony, and Boulder was a socially conservative town. The students were in a heap of trouble. The possibility of them doing some serious hard time was real.

But they mostly beat the rap. That was because Boulder District Judge William Buck (A&S’31, Law’34), a no-nonsense, fair-minded conservative, took a cold-eyed look at the Colorado marijuana law — and promptly declared it unconstitutional on April 20, 1964 of all days. Far out. The stunned defendants walked. The stunned Colorado Supreme Court overruled Buck and reinstated the law the following year.

Why did the CU Twelve choose to smoke pot in the first place? Partly because it was illegal, of course. The thrill of using a forbidden substance and sticking a finger in the eye of established authority was at least as attractive as the high.

It’s been like that for 49 years, but the times they are a-changing.

A few weeks ago, I asked a friend who’s been smoking pot since he was at CU in the late ’60s how it felt to smoke now that it was legal.

“It’s not as much fun,” he said.

Thoughts from resident columnist Paul Danish.

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Marijuana

Campus News Briefs — Fall 2022

Pollution’s Impact on Babies

Palm Trees Inspire New Wind Turbines

The Misinformation of Marijuana Labels

Heard Around Campus:

Digits

Related Articles

Migrating for Medical Marijuana

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The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience

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Research on the Road

Hard Science

Reality Check

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Campus News Briefs – Winter 2017

Saturn Finale

Heard Around Campus

A Legend Among Us

Twins Aid Marijuana Research

Related Articles

Extinguishing the Thrill

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