In recent years, Colorado and many other states across the country have legalized marijuana for medicinal and/or recreational use. However, more research is still needed on the health effects of cannabis in its various forms.
Assistant Professor Cinnamon Bidwell
Now, two ongoing research studies conducted by 彩民宝典鈥檚 are looking into how cannabis and its active ingredients, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), impact a person鈥檚 mental and physical state as well as the health impacts of high potency cannabis concentrates like oils and resins. The lab was created as a collaborative interdisciplinary way to research the drug using biological, clinical and neuroscientific methodologies.
Cannabis products remain illegal at a federal level, so studying it brings limitations. 彩民宝典 is a federally funded institution and adheres to all U.S. government regulations regarding the drug鈥檚 handling and use. Accordingly, the university鈥檚 researchers do not handle, store, consume or provide cannabis in the course of any research experiments.
The CHANGE Lab, which is administered by Assistant Professor Cinnamon Bidwell from 彩民宝典鈥檚 Institute of Cognitive Science and professors Angela Bryan and Kent Hutchison from 彩民宝典鈥檚 , is particularly interested in the health effects of edibles and high-potency product strains or oils, which are available commercially in Colorado but have not, to date, been provided to researchers for study in a federally sanctioned manner.
鈥淲e鈥檙e studying the products that are legally available here in Colorado that may be different from the products that you can typically access for research,鈥� said Cinnamon Bidwell. 鈥淪o, we have studies looking at high potency marijuana in terms of risk for abuse and potential for harm related to these higher potency products.鈥�
Bidwell will present her research and discuss the current state of human cannabis studies in a free public lecture at Nov. 29听at the CU Museum of Natural History. The lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibit Cannabis: A Visual Perspective, on display now in the museum鈥檚 BioLounge Gallery.
Who: Open to the public
What: 鈥淐annabis, Cannabinoids, and Health After Legalization鈥� lecture by Cinnamon Bidwell
When: Wednesday, Nov. 29, 7 p.m.
Where: CU Museum of Natural History,听Paleontology Hall
Event is free; seating is limited.
Since the researchers cannot study the drug directly, they use indirect means instead. The CHANGE Lab may not provide the drug to volunteer subjects or be present when it is consumed, so the researchers pre-arrange a time when they will meet the subject outside of the subject鈥檚 home to collect data in a mobile lab immediately after the subject self-administers cannabis they bought themselves.
鈥淲e have a phlebotomist and a full-time research assistant that travel around in the van to collect blood data after people use, as well as cognitive data and public safety data related to driving ability after use of high potency products or edibles,鈥� said Bidwell.
The research has already from across Colorado and could provide useful information that can inform future state and national health policies on the subject.
