Journal of Cannabis Research: A Short History

Cannabis has a long and ancient history in society and medicine. Evidence for entheogenic use dates back more than 2,500 years and applications in traditional medicine span centuries. During the 1900s, most countries banned the growth, sale and consumption of cannabis. However, according to the UN World Drug Report, cannabis remained very popular being "the world's most widely produced, trafficked, and consumed drug in the world in 2010."

There are more than 500 known compounds in the cannabis plant, with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) being the most well-known. Medical cannabis refers to the use of these products in directly treating disease, with various immunological, neurological, psychological and other applications having been discovered to date.

The aforementioned regulation has limited the amount of clinical research that's been conducted into medical cannabis, but as of today, there are 49 countries and 39 US states (including Washington DC) that permit the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. 

Despite the challenges that remain, knowledge and understanding of the role of cannabis in healthcare is growing. Research is strong in applications for cancer, nausea and vomiting, chronic pain and musculoskeletal pain,  anxiety and mental health, inflammation, even products for companion animals. The adverse effects and the public health impacts of more widespread use are also much clearer thanks to national and international surveys.

These advances in cannabis science can be attributed, in part, to organisations such as the Institute of Cannabis Research (Colorado State University–Pueblo, USA), which was created by the Colorado state legislature in 2015 to help fund research and communicate trusted science to the public. They are the sponsors of the Journal of Cannabis Research, which was launched in 2018 to help support this mission and give cannabis scientists and public health/policy experts a central resource for knowledge and dissemination.

It became clear from the outset that the journal had to be multi-disciplinary. Questions about the cannabis plant and its products had been increasing across dozens of fields: plant biology and agriculture, genetics, biomedical science, public health, public policy, environmental science, commerce and more. Manuscripts were being published in various field-specific journals and gaining traction, but this made it difficult for cannabis scientists to stay abreast of everything relevant to their research. It also made it difficult for researchers to find a suitable home for manuscripts that did not fit neatly into one field.

Journal of Cannabis Research: Aims & Scope

The Journal of Cannabis Research is a central resource for all these topics, providing updates across each field and encouraging cross-disciplinary discussion that helps cannabis research advance as a whole. The full scope of the journal and our inter-disciplinary approach to cannabis can be found on our About page.

Join our Editorial Board!

Supporting authors across each of these areas would not be possible without our international Editorial Board, led by our Founding Editor-in-Chief, David A. Gorelick, MD, PhD (University of Maryland Baltimore, USA). We are fortunate to have some giants of cannabis research supporting the journal. Their knowledge and connections to the field are essential to making sure our diverse manuscripts are judged by the most suitable experts. If this role sounds appealing, then you're in luck! The Journal of Cannabis Research is currently recruiting new Associate Editors and would be pleased to receive your application.

Collections and Calls for Papers

Beyond manuscript review, our editors also help us stay on the leading edge of cannabis science and commission work from authors working on the most exciting and important topics. To this end, the  Journal of Cannabis Research recently launched four new collections of key relevance to the field:

• Non-psychotropic cannabinoids in drug discovery and their therapeutic potential
  Exciting clinical and preclinical research on CBD and cannabinoids, including pharmacology and chemical extraction.

• Healthcare professionals and cannabis: knowledge, attitudes, and training
  Evaluating the state of knowledge and advising on future developments to ensure medical professionals, particularly non-specialists in cannabis, are equipped to talk to patients.

• New developments in Cannabis sativa science: agronomy, plant biology, and molecular insights
  Plant science, agriculture, cultivation and the genetic/transcriptomic features of C. sativa

• Mechanisms of action and potential therapeutic applications of the cannabis plant
  The endocannabinoid system and how various molecules derived from cannabis interact with the human body, as well as how interactions can be leveraged for therapy.

The Institute for Cannabis Research is integral to our work. They host monthly webinars, post a monthly newsletter and organise the annual Cannabis Research Conference (this year held in Portland, OR, USA). These are all incredibly valuable resources to a cannabis scientist and, importantly, free to access!