Federal government funds $24 million cannabis and brain health research consortium

The federal government announced Wednesday a $24 million investment to establish the Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium, a collaborative research initiative funded through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The consortium brings together 10 research teams from universities across Canada—Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal, McGill University, Dalhousie University, McMaster University, University of Waterloo, and the University of Calgary—to study how cannabis affects the brain in people of various ages.

The research will focus on establishing scientific evidence about both potential benefits and harms of cannabis use, including its effects on epilepsy, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep, mental health, and brain development in youth and during pregnancy. Dr. Patricia Conrod, scientific director at CIHR's Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, said the researchers will recruit more than 3,000 people of all ages and collect data about brain function, mental health, and substance use across the lifespan. The data will be made open for other Canadian researchers to use in their own studies.

Canadian research on cannabis ramped up after the drug was legalized in 2018, but significant gaps in knowledge remain. "It's bringing together Canada's top brain health and cannabis researchers in order to really bring us to another place in terms of understanding the potential benefits and the potential harms of cannabis use for our population," Conrod said.