Grant: Catalyst Grant: Cannabis Research in Urgent Priority Areas

Although legal access to medical cannabis has been available in Canada for many years, our society has yet to fully understand the important health impacts surrounding the use of medical cannabis. The urgency of obtaining this information is emphasized by the proposal to legalize cannabis in Canada and the subsequent projected increase in cannabis users to as high as 7 million by 2021. Thus, without understanding the risks or benefits of cannabis consumption for such a large number of Canadians, we will not know the range of potential health outcomes of these individuals until too late. As a result, researchers must initiate immediate strategies to understand the benefits and risks associated with cannabis use in a real-world context. One area where cannabis is expected to have some potential impact relates to pain management. The use of narcotics in Canada has reached epidemic proportions with disastrous outcomes on society. Medical cannabis may allow people who are using narcotics chronically for pain to either reduce their use or stop all together. However, the evidence to support medical cannabis in this role is currently lacking. To assist with this, our team of experts will expand their work with one of the largest known databases of patients seeking cannabis as a medical therapy in order to understand the benefits and the risks associated with cannabis use in patients already receiving narcotics on a chronic basis. We will use this information to determine if medical cannabis influences either the amount of narcotics used by patients or if it can also assist in allowing patients to stop using narcotics. This information has the potential to have a substantial impact on the overall health of Canadians using cannabis and narcotics.