The Cannabis Analytics, Safety and Health Initiative aims to improve cannabis safety, testing and public understanding through research focused on science and health.

The initiative has grown in recent years, including five faculty members from multidisciplinary backgrounds and varying research focuses. Maxwell Leung, the initiative director and professor in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, said growing student interest and new research breakthroughs played a key role in the expansion of the initiative. 

“The work that my lab has been doing has gained a lot of traction inthe scientific community and also among the general public,” Leung said. “We discovered a new category of contaminant, Fusarium mycotoxin, that has not been reported in the literature in cannabis before.”

Thomas Cahill, an initiative member and professor in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, said despite the highly toxic Fusarium mold’s likely presence in cannabis plants and its potential health implications, it is not widely regulated or tested for. 

Cahill said his research for the initiative focuses on testing cannabis product samples for fungal toxins and pesticide residue to find gaps in safety and advocate for potential changes. 

“Let’s focus our efforts and resources to what would help the safety of cannabis use the most,” Cahill said. “To find limitations and issues with cannabis use and see how we can direct resources or advise testing schemes to get the most bang for the buck.”

READ MORE: A cut above: ASU researchers head studies on cannabis contaminants

Beyond laboratory testing, the initiative also studies cannabis through a broader public health lens. Madeline Meier, an initiative member and professor in the Department of Psychology, said she is currently working on a project to understand how cannabis use is linked to health outcomes, including in mental health and cognitive function.

Meier said her research involves using health records to attempt to identify the correlations of long-term cannabis use. She added that a particular focus of the initiative is investigating cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, which causes severe vomiting and nausea following long-term use of cannabis. 

“That’s one interest of our group: to use this electronic health record data to try to understand who’s developing cannabis hyperemesis,” Meier said. “Can we identify them from their electronic records, and what are the correlates?”

The initiative works closely with students from pharmacology and toxicology, biological data science and population health, but is open to any student who wants to be a part of the initiative, Leung said. The researchers also hold seminars to educate the general public about cannabis use. 

Meier said federal restrictions limit the scope of cannabis research, despite its legality for recreational and medical use in Arizona for those older than 21. She added that cannabis’s federal classification prevents researchers from bringing in or giving cannabis to anyone associated with the lab without a DEA license, slowing the research to study cannabis’s long-term effects. 

READ MORE: ASU club says it is a ‘legal mind’ behind the future of federal cannabis regulation

According to Cahill, future plans for the initiative include establishing an independent testing laboratory at ASU, expanding the scope of research to psilocybin, an ingredient in magic mushrooms, and continuing to improve testing for emerging contaminants.

Leung said the initiative’s long-term goal is to generate research that informs healthcare providers, policy makers and consumers as the market of cannabis expands. 

“We hope that by building a research initiative … we can provide scientific leadership to transform the industry from unregulated use to a safe, sustainable consumer market,” Leung said.

Edited by Kate Gore, Senna James and Ellis Preston.

Reach the reporter at ngmohta@asu.edu.

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