Enhancing Methods for Research on Cannabis: A Workshop Report

Progressive legalization of medical and recreational cannabis markets at the state-level has led to rapid growth of medical and recreational cannabis markets and to product diversification with emerging products having high concentrations of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Research on these products is still limited and the evidence available for policy formulation is diminished by methodological limitations.

As a step towards addressing these limitations, the Colorado School of Public Health convened a multidisciplinary workshop that addressed four areas of cannabis research: epidemiological, clinical, surveillance, and policy. Workshop participants provided recommendations in each area to advance research on cannabis to make it more informative for decision-making on key policy topics. Emphasis was placed on assessment of use of cannabis products by study participants.

Recommendations for research methods and their implementation were made in the four areas. Those for epidemiology include using a core set of exposure assessment measures across three domains; developing this core set through a national and/or international scientific consensus process; ensuring the core set of measures are validated and readily available; and updating the core set periodically to account for ongoing changes in the cannabis landscape. Recommendations in the clinical research area include standard dosing and dosing terminology; standardized data collection instruments; identifying biomarkers for detecting cannabis exposure; and biological matrices. Policy research recommendations were offered for state regulators, evaluators/researchers, and policy makers. Surveillance recommendations include developing and implementing a novel and nimble surveillance system to monitor use of high-concentration forms of cannabis; adding questions to existing surveillance systems with the objective of monitoring high-concentration cannabis and adverse outcomes; and elevating the coordination, synthesis, and dissemination of findings in existing data sources that could signal adverse outcomes from high-concentration cannabis.

Given the changing marketplace, it is urgent to improve the informativeness of cannabis research through enhanced research methods.