Marjorie Michel, Canada's health minister, announced a $24 million investment to establish the Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium. Funded through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the initiative will bring together ten university teams from coast to coast to study how cannabis interacts with the brain across the lifespan.
Consortium structure and funding
The consortium will be overseen by the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction at CIHR, where Dr Patricia Conrod serves as scientific director. She said the programme will recruit more than 3,000 participants of all ages and collect data on brain function, mental health and substance use. All data will be made openly available to Canadian researchers, creating a national resource for future studies.
Research scope and Canadian impact
Researchers will examine potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis for conditions such as epilepsy, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder, as well as possible harms related to sleep, mental health, youth brain development and exposure during pregnancy. The ten lead investigators are based at Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal, McGill University, Dalhousie University, McMaster University, University of Waterloo and University of Calgary.
Dr Conrod noted that legalisation in 2018 spurred a surge in cannabis research, yet many questions remain unanswered. By uniting Canada's top brain health and cannabis scientists, the consortium aims to provide evidence that can guide clinicians, policymakers and consumers.
Based on reporting by Global News.