California Gives $3M to UC San Diego for CBD Research

California is giving the University of California, San Diego $3 million to study CBD, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The funds will be split between five research projects aimed at exploring the efficacy of CBD to treat psychosis, rheumatoid arthritis, insomnia, alcohol dependence, and anorexia nervosa.

The studies are being conducted by UCSD’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis, which is already studying CBD treatment for children with severe autism.

The funds for the five research projects were taken from cannabis taxes derived from legal sales at licensed dispensaries. The autism study is funded with a $4.7 million grant from the Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation of Lindon, Utah. That gift is still the largest private donation for medical cannabis research in the U.S.

“Within the medical community, there is a lot of interest in the role of medical cannabis and CBD. There is a hope that it could be yet another useful agent in some of these conditions, which are difficult to treat or disabling.” – Igor Grant, director of the UCSD cannabis center, in a statement, via the Union-Tribune

UCSD researchers have been studying medical cannabis since 2000 and has published two studies. In 2007, the center reported that smoked cannabis was effective in treating neuropathic pain; that study was published in the journal Anesthesiology. In 2012, a clinical study at the center found smoked cannabis reduced some symptoms of multiple sclerosis. That study was published in the Canadian Medical Association journal. ‘

The department currently has three cannabis-related clinical trials in progress including the effect of cannabis and endocannabinoids on HIV neuropathic pain, and the effect of vaporized cannabis on neuropathic lower back pain, and one to evaluate the effects of driving under the influence of cannabis.