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Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

 Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

  • (a) freedom of conscience and religion;

  • (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

  • (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

  • (d) freedom of association.

 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

 
Before purchasing any product(s) from this site you agree that:
 
You are taking your health into your own hands;
You have done and will continue to do your own research; and
You do not hold this website or its' affiliates responsible for your health.

 Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

  • (a) freedom of conscience and religion;

  • (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

  • (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

  • (d) freedom of association.

 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

 
Before purchasing any product(s) from this site you agree that:
 
You are taking your health into your own hands;
You have done and will continue to do your own research; and
You do not hold this website or its' affiliates responsible for your health.

 Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

  • (a) freedom of conscience and religion;

  • (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

  • (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

  • (d) freedom of association.

 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

 
Before purchasing any product(s) from this site you agree that:
 
You are taking your health into your own hands;
You have done and will continue to do your own research; and
You do not hold this website or its' affiliates responsible for your health.
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REC articles are not the view or opinion of Alpha Extract Administrators

US and Canadian Scientists Call for All Cannabis Research Restrictions to Be Lifted – LPC

Mediame.guru

December 2, 2019

Three scientists on both sides of the border call for an ease on cannabis research restrictions.Three scientists from Canada and the US are calling for cannabis research restrictions to be lifted. They state that these restrictions are unnecessary, perpetuate stigma, and are ultimately a danger to public health.

“We think these restrictions require a second look as they are hampering governments from meeting their own policy objectives,” the scientists said in a commentary. “Preserving public health and public safety while also promoting social justice and economic development requires strong partnerships among governments, universities, and industry.”

The commentary appeared in Folio, a newsletter published by the University of Alberta.

The scientists refer to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which reviews all applications to cultivate cannabis for research. Many find this system too slow, and many universities do not secure their licences. Canada is not much better. Though cannabis is legalized here, cannabis research restrictions – and stigmas – persist. They say cannabis is treated like Big Tobacco, even though health benefits may exist.

The cannabis research restrictions “are rooted in persistent political and professional biases about the value of cannabis research,” they write. “Stigma associated with cannabis research persist within universities and governments.”

Scientists Make Six Recommendations – LPC

The three scientists called on governments on both sides of the border to lift cannabis research restrictions. They wrote six recommendations:

  1. Remove restrictions on industry donations to universities
  2. Shift attitudes about cannabis research
  3. Leverage and promote research partnership opportunities
  4. Develop cannabis research best practices
  5. In the US, DEA should ease restrictions
  6. Increase research into positive effects of cannabis rather than just negative

These recommendations should be commended. Doctors are reluctant to give cannabis prescriptions because they don’t know enough about it. The Canadian Medical Association Journal also stated that not enough is known about the risks and benefits of cannabis. If enough scientists and medical professionals fight to reduce the stigma and cannabis research restrictions, change will come.

COMMENTARY || Eliminate restrictions preventing cannabis research

The industry needs scientific data to develop intelligently, and that can’t happen until political and professional biases are uprooted.

By JOSHUA MEISEL, TARA MARIE WATSON and JARED WESLEY

Recreational cannabis markets are opening up across North America. Yet restrictions on university cannabis research remain. They prevent consumers, patients, medical professionals, the cannabis industry and policy-makers from making decisions based on scientific data.

There are numerous barriers to conducting research on cannabis, especially in countries where cannabis is illegal. But even in Canada, where cannabis was legalized in 2018, such barriers persist and include stringent restrictions on partnerships between the cannabis industry and researchers. We think these restrictions require a second look, as they are hampering governments from meeting their own policy objectives. Preserving public health and public safety while also promoting social justice and economic development requires strong partnerships among governments, universities and industry.

Impacts of legalization

The legalization of cannabis for recreational use in Canada and many U.S. states is a significant achievement in public policy. The speed with which governments have transformed popular mandates into action is historically rare and deserving of praise. While legalization is still in its early days in Canadian jurisdictions, emerging evidence suggests that cannabis use has not increased among youth, and drug-impaired-driving arrests have not risen as a direct result of legalization. Similar findings are being reported in U.S. states that have implemented regulated cannabis markets; evidence suggests inconsistent outcomes associated with youth cannabis use ratesdrug-impaired driving and crime rates. In other words, the sky has not fallen, although many legalization opponents voiced dire warnings of increased cannabis use and harms. That said, more should be done to investigate the effects of legalization on public health and well-being. To truly understand the impacts that legalization is having across various North American jurisdictions, well-funded, high-quality research is needed.

However, in the U.S., researchers’ access to the cannabis plant and related products that mirror those available in regulated markets is restricted by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). In both Canada and the U.S., funding is insufficient to support research beyond the historical focus on misuse and drug pathology. Such barriers are often found in laws or regulations, but they are rooted in persistent political and professional biases about the value of cannabis research. Just as the stigma surrounding cannabis use remains among the public, so, too, does the stigma associated with cannabis research persist within universities and governments.

Restrictions on industry-researcher partnerships

Improving public health and enhancing public safety have been explicit policy objectives of the Canadian and U.S. state governments that have legalized cannabis. However, governments may need to rethink elements of their regulatory approaches for legalization to meet their policy goals in these areas.

So far, Canadian and U.S. state governments have largely replicated existing regulatory frameworks for tobacco and alcohol. Leaving aside the differences in psychopharmacological effects and public health impact between tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, these efforts perpetuate the stigma associated with cannabis consumption, equating the new industry with Big Tobacco. Big Canna, as it has been called, has been barred from engaging in many forms of advertising and sponsorship, even in Canada, where regulated markets exist. This moratorium has prevented research partnerships with the academic sector. Under section 16 of Canada’s Cannabis Act, scholars are prohibited from hosting events or securing research partnerships with cannabis companies as acknowledged sponsors. These restrictions exist even though industry is working with universities to train cannabis workers. Beyond tobacco, no such bans apply to other controversial industries like oil and gas, or pharmaceuticals. The prohibition on industry-researcher partnerships and sponsorship closes off a significant revenue stream for research on the effects of cannabis legalization on individuals and society.

The ban on industry-researcher partnerships further prevents the development of robust research networks among government, academic and industry representatives committed to growing the North American cannabis ecosystem in a responsible and productive manner. Indeed, partnerships with academics would help industry to make informed decisions about investments, to take advantage of best and promising practices and to build solid plans to promote corporate social responsibility.

Such an approach does not mean producing research that serves only industry interests and commercialization. Instead, it should entail finding socially responsible ways for industry to work with scholars to develop credible cannabis research programs in the natural and social sciences. It also means connecting these research findings to the policy realm, ensuring that government actors are aware of new advances in medical and policy research. A stronger network would allow policy-makers to make more informed regulatory choices based on scientific findings and industry input.

Doing this policy work alone or in professional silos, in times of tight fiscal constraint, can be slow and ineffectual. Academics would gain from sharing and leveraging each other’s findings to evaluate real-world impacts in both industry and policy.

Ironically, governments readily accept cannabis industry tax dollars and then redistribute these funds to universities. This pattern is playing out in California, where cultivation and excise taxes levied against the cannabis industry will support cannabis research across the state. At the federal level, the Internal Revenue Service collects taxes from cannabis businesses and then distributes those funds in support of grants administered by the National Institutes of Health.

Restrictions fail to serve the public

Numerous stakeholders are disadvantaged when credible, well-monitored cannabis-related research goes unfunded or is otherwise blocked.

Recreational and would-be cannabis consumers in legal markets are seeking to make informed choices about proper use of cannabis products. Research and evidence-informed education are needed on the health and safety risks and benefits associated with cannabis products, especially as the marketplace expands. Canada has recently broadened legalization to include cannabis edibles, topicals and extracts, for instance, and credible research is required to ensure that consumers safely navigate this transition.

Medical cannabis consumers and medical professionals have historically been short-changed by barriers to research, and this pattern continues. It has translated, in part, to a dearth of credible knowledge about the therapeutic potential of cannabis for various medical and mental health conditions. Clinical trials have been conducted outside North America, yet medical professionals in the U.S. and Canada are reluctant to advise patients without evidence culled from randomized controlled trials, which are the gold standard. In the absence of such clinical evidence, a citizen science movement has emerged where patients share their experiences with using different strains and products to treat a host of conditions. We can do better, provided restrictions on research are lifted.

Recreational and medical cannabis consumers from populations considered at greater risk of harms (such as youth and pregnant women) need information about the specific effects of cannabis consumption they might experience.

Members of Indigenous and ethno-racial communities have been disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition. Much more research should be done that captures community perspectives on cannabis use and legal frameworks. This work should include examining initiatives being implemented in some jurisdictions to ameliorate past harms and enhance diverse representation in the legal cannabis economy.

Environmental stakeholders and policy-makers desire research on sustainable cannabis production and business models.

In short, most of the public would benefit from a broader and deeper industry-university network. While governments could do this research alone—as they have been doing, to a large extent—the involvement of academics can lend additional resources and credibility to the process. Involving cannabis companies would help in the same ways.

Recommendations

There is little evidence that the public interest is served by legal barriers to industry-university partnerships for cannabis research. We propose the following:

  1. In Canada and the U.S., restrictions on cannabis industry contributions to university research should be lifted. This would put the cannabis industry on the same footing as its counterparts—for example, the pharmaceutical sector.
  2. A cultural shift is needed in attitudes toward the legitimacy of scientific cannabis research within universities and state agencies. Institutions should embrace the merits of scientific cannabis research as they would research into any other agricultural commodity or resource. Removing restrictions on the ability of researchers to work with cannabis industry groups is a firm first step in this direction.
  3. Leverage existing partnership opportunities. Granting programs such as the Connections and Partnership initiatives at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the National Science Foundation in the U.S. already promote collaboration among academics and partners in other sectors. Allowing cannabis companies to be collaborators in these programs would allow scholars to leverage considerable private sector capital through matched funding.
  4. Develop best practices to guide the formation of ethical industry-university partnerships—practices that could be applicable beyond the cannabis sector. The emergence of a newly legal industry provides an opportunity for governments and funding agencies to revisit existing norms and rules around private-public partnerships in research. Establishing clear ethical guidelines for these sorts of collaborations could serve a broader purpose, regulating the relationships between all businesses and universities for research that serves the public good. 
  5. The U.S. DEA should ease restrictions on cannabis research. This can be readily accomplished by moving cannabis from the most restricted to the least restricted category and allowing research institutions to study constituents of cannabis plant material produced by the legal cannabis industry.
  6. Funders and universities should recognize that studies examining therapeutic benefits are as valuable as research focused on negative health effects. Funding should flow equally to both types.

Joshua Meisel is a professor of sociology at Humboldt State University. Tara Marie Watson is a drug policy researcher in Toronto. Jared Wesley is an associate professor of political science in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta.

This opinion-editorial originally appeared Nov. 22, 2019, in Policy Options.


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