UCI Center for the Study of Cannabis (CSC)
We are a UCI School of Medicine center whose mission is to address the medical and scientific challenges posed by cannabis legalization.
With the passage of Propositions 215 (1996) and 64 (2016), the State of California legalized both medical and non-medical uses of cannabis. Similar changes have occurred throughout the United States. As of 2024, 24 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia had legalized the non-medical use of cannabis, and another seven states have decriminalized it. Thirty-eight states, three territories and the District of Columbia allow the medical use of cannabis products. These sweeping legal transformations are taking place in a societal context shaped by multiple contrasting factors:
- As cultural attitudes toward cannabis evolve, the prevalence of its use in the United States continues to remain high, especially in most-at-risk populations such as teenagers;
- Recent changes in legal status have promoted the explosive growth of a new cannabis industry, which is now aggressively marketing cannabis products;
- Despite the many questions raised by the increased diffusion of cannabis, our understanding of its medical benefits and risks is still critically incomplete;
This societal context raises urgent medical and scientific questions, whose answers require groundbreaking research. The mission of the CSC is to foster such research and its dissemination, engage stakeholders at the State and national level in a balanced, evidence-based discourse about cannabis, and heighten public awareness about the risks and benefits of cannabis use.