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J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr. 2021 Nov 28;2021(58):114-122. doi: 10.1093/jncimonographs/lgab009.

Challenges for Clinical Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research in the United States.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs

Ziva D Cooper, Donald I Abrams, Steven Gust, Alejandro Salicrup, Douglas C Throckmorton

Affiliations

  1. UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
  2. Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
  3. Department of Oncology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
  4. Office of the Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.
  5. Research and Training Branch, Center for Global Health and Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.
  6. Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD, USA.

PMID: 34850896 DOI: 10.1093/jncimonographs/lgab009

Abstract

Significant changes have occurred in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use around the globe and across the United States. With widespread availability of novel cannabis and cannabis-based products, there is an urgent need to understand their safety and effectiveness for medical indications. Three primary barriers contribute to the difficulty in initiating research geared toward answering the most pressing public health questions: the US regulatory status of cannabis and cannabinoids, sources for cannabis and cannabinoid study medications, and limited funding and resources to support studies. Despite these hurdles, research is rapidly increasing, and recent changes in the United States have paved the way for exciting new work. Here, challenges and barriers to cannabis and cannabinoid research are described from the perspectives of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health; the US Food and Drug Administration; and 2 clinical researchers. Barriers specifically to studying cannabis, cannabinoids, and cancer are emphasized.

Published by Oxford University Press 2021. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

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