{"id":228192,"date":"2019-08-26T18:53:44","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T22:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=228192"},"modified":"2019-08-26T23:55:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T03:55:09","slug":"unb-researcher-receives-grant-to-explore-medical-potential-of-cannabis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/08\/26\/unb-researcher-receives-grant-to-explore-medical-potential-of-cannabis\/","title":{"rendered":"UNB researcher receives grant to explore medical potential of cannabis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yang Qu says cannabis is rapidly being transformed from an underground species into an industrial crop that awaits medical and agricultural development. (Shutterstock Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FREDERICTON \u2014 A biochemist at the University of New Brunswick says the legalization of recreational cannabis has opened the door for scientists to find new medical uses for the plant.<\/p>\n

Yang Qu says cannabis is rapidly being transformed from an underground species into an industrial crop that awaits medical and agricultural development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past the major driving force of the breeding was to get a higher THC content, because THC is the major psychoactive component in cannabis,\u201d Qu said Monday. \u201cRecreational use of cannabis is mainly because of the component THC.<\/p>\n

Now, he noted, there is growing understanding that there are many cannabinoids other than THC and CBD. (CBD, which does not cause a high, is marketed in lotions, sprays, oils and lozenges for purported healing properties.)<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of legalization, we get access to manipulate this plant. We can start developing the plant to produce specific cannabinoids for different medical applications,\u201d Qu said.<\/p>\n

The scientist began working at the University of New Brunswick in January after being named the first cannabis health research chair in the country.<\/p>\n

He said until now research has focused on increasing THC and CBD concentrations but has largely neglected the roughly 90 other cannabinoids that could be developed for other uses.<\/p>\n

Cannabinoids have applications in the central nervous system and in pain management.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve known for decades that cannabis could be used medicinally. But because of the legal status it was difficult for the science community to work with the plants,\u201d Qu said.<\/p>\n

He said there will be a need to grow plants with specific cannabinoids as the medical use for each is identified.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we have a plant producing very specific molecules, so that when an application is identified we will have a production system for it?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

His department has received $150,000 in federal funding to buy some of the research equipment he needs.<\/p>\n

Among the groups looking to cannabis research for medical benefits is the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.<\/p>\n

Pamela Valentine, president and chief executive officer of the society issued a statement in March to say she is optimistic about the potential of medical cannabis for the management of MS symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnecdotally, cannabis appears to offer some MS patients life-changing improvements, but we simply don’t know all the facts to draw solid, scientifically-proven conclusions,\u201d she wrote.\u201d This is not good enough; especially when dealing with a complex disease like MS. That’s why the MS Society of Canada is calling on the cannabis industry to help us prove the efficacy of cannabis treatment by funding scientific, evidence-based research.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MS Society has a partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to provide $1.5 million in funding for cannabis and MS research over the next five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FREDERICTON \u2014 A biochemist at the University of New Brunswick says the legalization of recreational cannabis has opened the door …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":57107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,54365,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-instagram","category-news","mauthors-kevin-bissett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228193,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228192\/revisions\/228193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}