WVU in the News: Medical cannabis use grows in West Virginia; research opportunities may shed more light on risks and benefits

West Virginians’ demand for medical cannabis continues to grow. Meanwhile, the national conversation reveals the ongoing debate over the value of cannabis – with a recent presidential executiveorder and a New York Times editorial heading in opposite directions. A WVU Medicine addiction specialist shared some resources on the issues behind that conversation. 

HB 5074 passed in the House of Delegates on March 4 and now is in Senate Finance. It would, among other things, give $3 million to the state Supreme Court for a new Child Protection Commission, $10 million to WVU for Ibogaine research (a hallucinogen with the potential to treat addiction), $5 million to the Division of Primary Care for services for the homeless, 15% to the OMC for administrative purposes, 15% to the Department of Agriculture for medical cannabis testing, 10% to Marshall University for cannabis research, and 10% to WVU’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute for substance use disorder research.

Dr. James Berry, chair of WVU’s Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry and director of Addictions, has spoken before with The Dominion Post about his medical cannabis concerns and recently shared a number of resources illustrating those concerns.