The University of Mississippi on Thursday launched the National Center for Cannabis Research and Education (NCCE) which will conduct scientific research, data analysis, education, and training on the health effects of cannabis. The program and its researchers, based in the university’s School of Pharmacy, will also aid in policymaking and outreach as state programs emerge throughout the U.S.

Famously, the University of Mississippi had the only federal license to cultivate cannabis for more than 50 years through the National Institute on Drug Abuse Drug Supply Program, and advocates had long complained that the products grown at the university were of low quality. Recently, two companies, Groff North America Hemplex and BRC, announced they had harvested cannabis for federal research purposes, ending the university’s monopoly on cultivating cannabis for the federal government program.

Larry Walker, interim director of the NCCRE, who served 16 years as director of the National Center for Natural Products Research, said the goal of the center “is that health professionals and patients have the products and information that will allow them to tap the hope for new treatments from cannabis, while understanding and minimizing harmful effects.”

View the full article at ganjapreneur.com