Five researchers will lead a first-of-its-kind study about the genetics of legacy cannabis and how policy changes have impacted the greater cannabis community, funded by a $2.7 million grant from the California Department of Cannabis Control.
“Legacy Cannabis Genetics: People and Their Plants, a Community-Driven Study” is one of 16 research projects funded by the DCC’s $20 million allotment to local universities studying various aspects of medical and recreational cannabis.
The study “is intended to establish a replicable research model for documenting legacy genetics in cannabis communities in California and beyond.”
The principal investigator for “Legacy Cannabis Genetics” is Dr. Dominic Corva, a sociology professor at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, and director of the school’s cannabis studies program. Co-principal investigators are Genine Coleman, executive director of the nonprofit Origins Council; Dr. Rachel F. Giraudo, an associate professor of anthropology at California State University, Northridge; Dr. Todd Holmes, a historian with the University of California, Berkeley; and Dr. Eleanor Kuntz, co-founder and CEO of LeafWorks and co-founder of Canndor, a cannabis herbarium that will serve as a research partner in the study.
“We believe strongly that protecting the plants and the people that steward them is critical for the survival of both and that this study is a first major step toward advancing that cause,” Kuntz said in a press release.
“Legacy Cannabis Genetics” received the largest state grant of the $20 million set aside for research projects.
Other studies to be funded by the DCC include “A Translational Study on the Short- and Long-term Effects of High-dose THC” ($2 million); “The Impacts of the Potency of Cannabis Concentrates and THC Metabolism on Cognitive Impairment in Young Adults” ($904,000); “The State of Medical Cannabis in California” ($437,000); “Local Regulations, Market Power, and the Evolution of the California Cannabis Industry” ($445,000); and “Licensed and Unlicensed Cultivation Across Banned and Permitted Jurisdictions” ($1 million).
— Garrett Rudolph