Researchers at the University of Utah may soon be seeing the impacts marijuana has on the human brain and if the medical benefits of the drug outweigh the risks.
Jeffrey Anderson, who is a professor of Radiology and Imaging Service at the university stated, “We’re going to study the effect of cannabis products on the brain.
We have so much that we don’t know yet about exactly what happens in the brain.”
“A local philanthropist has generously provided funding to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge,” Anderson explained.
The researchers will be using high-tech scans to see the effects that marijuana has on the brain and are aiming to have around 40 people participate int he study.
“So THC is the active ingredient that causes psychoactive effects, and then there’s other what we call cannabinoids… like CBD, and that’s one of the compounds that has been of most interest for medical uses,” Anderson explained.
“It probably has some effects on brain function that we really don’t understand very well,” Anderson commented. “We’d like to understand what is the effect on anxiety, on PTSD, on depression, on autism.”
“Even research has had a lot of regulatory obstacles, from both state and federal levels, it’s been very challenging and a lot of researchers just don’t study it because of the roadblocks involved,” he further said.
Medical marijuana may be on Utah’s ballot this November.
