As clear skies fade away and a storm approaches, Dan Lingo tosses up a serve while playing tennis against Terry Feigenbutz, back left, and Todd Benson at Moscow Middle School on Tuesday afternoon.
“We have so little research on cannabis in particular and I think some of the research we have is just really outdated,” McDonell said, noting cannabis available on illegal markets even in the 2000s was likely to have around 7 percent THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis.
McDonell described cannabis as “an extremely complicated plant,” that includes a lot of different chemicals, each of which could represent potential health benefits or health risks.
For example, until this year, there was only one federally approved cannabis producer that researchers could order cannabis from and the THC extract they were provided bore little resemblance to the products being used recreationally.
While some of the most pressing questions being addressed by WSU scientists deal with the drug’s effect on health — particularly mental health and brain development, McDonell said cannabis research touches on a broad variety of disciplines.
He said with decriminalization of cannabis, the nation has been lowering barriers for the industrial use of hemp as well and researchers are scrambling to explore its applications and produce useful data to support growers.