November 28, 2023
PatrickStill, Ph.D.

Theres growing interest in potential therapeutic uses of cannabis and its constituents among both health care providers and the public. Substances in cannabis have a variety of pharmacologic effects, and rigorous research is needed to understand their mechanisms of action and investigate their possible value in helping to manage health conditions.

However, investigators working in this field have encountered barriers that have hampered their research. Theyve shared their concerns about these problems at scientific meetings and in their responses to arequest for informationthat the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued last year. The barriers that many of them have mentioned include difficulty meeting complex Federal and state regulatory requirements, problems obtaining cannabis products suitable for research, a lack of validated measures of cannabis use and exposure, and inadequate scientific infrastructure to support research studies.

Read more and comment