Researchers Published More Than 4,300 Cannabis Studies This Year

There were more than 4,300 scientific papers covering cannabis published in 2022, the most ever recorded in a single year, according to a report by cannabis advocacy group NORML.

This year’s expansion of peer-reviewed cannabis studies means that researchers have published more than 30,000 such studies since 2010, the report said, while there were fewer than 3,000 cannabis studies in the 1990s and fewer than 2,000 studies during the 1980s. The majority of modern cannabis research has looked to investigate the plant’s therapeutic properties.

“Despite claims by some that marijuana has yet to be subject to adequate scientific scrutiny, scientists’ interest in studying cannabis has increased exponentially in recent years, as has our understanding of the plant, its active constituents, their mechanisms of action, and their effects on both the user and upon society. It is time for politicians and others to stop assessing cannabis through the lens of ‘what we don’t know’ and instead start engaging in evidence-based discussions about marijuana and marijuana reform policies that are indicative of all that we do know.” — Paul Armentano, NORML’s Deputy Director, in a statement

U.S.-based cannabis researchers received a boon in early December when President Joe Biden (D) signed into law the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, which will allow researchers to more easily investigate the medicinal properties of cannabis. That proposal — sponsored in the House by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Andy Harris (R-MD), and in the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) — was the first-ever standalone cannabis reform bill approved by Congress.