The researchers analyzed liver samples from 84 barred owls and 10 northern spotted owls.Within the study area, 70% of northern spotted owls and 40% of barred owls tested positive for anticoagulant rodenticides.The researchers hypothesize that cannabis cultivation in the area is the main source point for the presence of dangerous rodenticides.They also determined that barred owls are a suitable surrogate for determining rodenticide levels in the threatened northern spotted owl.Gabriel, in his capacities as a UC researcher and as executive director of the Integral Ecology Research Center, a nonprofit organization based in Humboldt County, is currently carrying out reclamation projects at illegal cannabis cultivation sites in California and Oregon.In a project conducted this May in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, a team representing 11 governmental and nongovernmental entities worked at 16 cultivation sites within eight large cultivation complexes, removing 6,000 pounds of trash, which included rodenticides and more than 5 miles of irrigation lines.Mourad estimates that removal of the irrigation lines restored more than 500,000 gallons of water — daily — into affected watersheds.Agencies including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Law Enforcement and Investigations arm of the U.S.Forest Service have provided grant funding for 170 such projects, 112 of which have already been completed.In an entirely different vein, UC Davis–based cannabis research has been conducted since 2016 at the UC Agricultural Issues Center , a UC Agriculture and Natural Resources statewide program operating since 1985.The center’s broad mission is to provide research based information on the economic dimensions of emerging issues in agriculture.Cannabis, then, is right in the center’s wheelhouse.Dan Sumner, the center’s director, reports that AIC began pursuing cannabis-related work after the 2015 passage of a set of laws known collectively as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act.This legislation laid the groundwork for state regulation of medicinal cannabis and ultimately of the recreational cannabis industry.

The lead agency in regulating commercial cannabis licenses for distributors and retailers, among other business types,pot drying is the Bureau of Cannabis Control — for which, between 2016 and 2018, the AIC prepared a Standardized Regulatory Impact Analysis.In the process, the AIC advised the BCC on the economic dimensions of various regulatory scenarios — and the bureau used the center’s analysis to inform the final cannabis regulations that it issued on Jan.16 of this year.According to Sumner, a principal insight that the AIC furnished to the BCC was that, since illegal cannabis continues to be attractive to retail buyers because it is cheaper than cannabis from regulated retailers, “much of the cannabis sold in California [after legalization] would remain in the illegal segment.” Moreover, regulations that generate benefits for consumers at lower costs will help sustain the legal marketplace.In this issue of California Agriculture, three AIC researchers — Pablo Valdes-Donoso, a postdoctoral scholar; Robin S.Goldstein, principal economic counselor; and Sumner — present their research on California’s rather stringent system for testing cannabis that enters the legal market.All cannabis sold legally in the state is tested for more than 100 contaminants.Of those contaminants, 66 are pesticides — and tolerance for 21 of those pesticides is set at zero.In many cases, allowable levels of cannabis contaminants are lower than those established for food sold in the state.The researchers, drawing on data provided by testing laboratories and manufacturers of testing equipment, estimated how much it costs to test a pound of cannabis under California’s regulatory regime, as well as the cost of collecting samples.They concluded that the need to destroy batches of cannabis that fail testing accounts for a large share of testing costs.The researchers argue that, though the availability of certifiably safe and legal cannabis products may prompt some customers to join the regulated market, other customers will remain in the cheaper illegal market.They speculate that, over time, increased availability of data about cannabis testing and sales will allow for greater certainty about the effect of the testing regime on cannabis prices and demand for legal cannabis.Meanwhile, UC Davis is establishing a dedicated center for research into psychoactive cannabis and industrial hemp — the Cannabis Research Initiative.

According to Cindy Kiel, executive associate vice chancellor for research administration at UC Davis, the initiative will draw on the comprehensive strengths of UC Davis faculty in areas ranging from agricultural and environmental impacts to legal, economic and policy outcomes to human and animal health.In particular, the initiative will benefit from UC Davis’s strong emphasis on agricultural issues such as soils, water, genomics and plant science and from faculty interest in two-way interactions such as those between cannabis and the environment.Funding is envisioned to flow from the UC Davis budget, from research funds established in Proposition 64 and from outside sources such as industry partners.Funding could also flow from the federal government via the National Institutes of Health.The initiative will be headed by co-directors representing the agricultural and medical sides of cannabis research.In May, UC Davis faculty members including Chemistry Professor Mark Mascal, along with colleagues from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, published an article demonstrating that a synthetic analogue of cannabidiol is as effective as CBD in controlling seizures in rats — and that it provides several benefits in comparison to CBD.The synthetic analogue is cheaper than herbal CBD, cannot be converted into psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol and is not restricted by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s “scheduling” apparatus.Meanwhile, the UC Davis–affiliated Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety is studying issues such as workplace safety for cannabis workers, who face risks that include unhealthy pesticide exposure.For students, UC Davis has offered cannabis courses including the graduate-level Cannabis sativa: The Plant and Its Impact on People — and, for undergraduates, Physiology of Cannabis.Abrand-new entrant into UC cannabis research is the UC Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center at UC Merced , established just last year to study tobacco- and cannabis-related issues in public health and public policy, especially in the San Joaquin Valley.The center, partnering with local public health departments and organizations such as the American Heart Association, aims to produce tobacco and cannabis research that places special emphasis on the San Joaquin Valley’s diverse population of teens and young adults and informs policy decisions that affect the region.The center’s flagship research initiative is a long term, survey-based effort to understand issues surrounding cannabis, tobacco and e-cigarettes.

The project is led by Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University and Mariaelena Gonzalez, assistant professor in public health at UC Merced.According to NCPC Director and UC Merced Associate Professor Anna Song, the researchers intend to provide data to counties that will allow them to make informed decisions about policy.Song notes that the counties in the study area are very different from, say, the Bay Area or Southern California, so state-level data isn’t adequate for formulation of local tobacco and cannabis policy.Song reports that the center’s work will fill gaps in knowledge about cannabis intake behavior; epidemiological data is spotty, she says, because many people won’t admit to engaging in behavior that has historically been illegal and continues to be federally illegal.The researchers are also keen to understand the interconnections between tobacco and cannabis — emerging data indicates that perceptions of tobacco risk are related to perceptions of cannabis, and the relationship between the two may affect individuals’ future tobacco use.“These are the things we are trying to disentangle,” Song says.The center was founded with a $3.8 million grant from the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, a state initiative administered by the UC Office of the President, which dispenses funds derived from the Tobacco Tax Increase Initiative, a proposition approved by California voters in 2016.Cannabis institutes at three UC campuses in Southern California — UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UC Los Angeles — conduct research on the health effects and medical uses of cannabis and its derivatives.But they differ greatly in their approach.The program at UC San Diego focuses closely on medical cannabis drying research and public safety issues.The UC Irvine program brings together medicine and law.The UCLA program has set itself the ambitious interdisciplinary task of exploring how cannabis affects society along the medical, legal, economic and social dimensions.The UC Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UC San Diego, the oldest of the three institutes, was established when California Senate Bill 847 enabled UC to establish a program to “enhance understanding of the efficacy and adverse effects of marijuana as a pharmacological agent.” Today, the center’s cannabis research covers a broad range of clinical conditions such as neuropathic pain, autism, bipolar disorder and early psychosis — as well as public safety issues surrounding the use of cannabis and cannabinoids.A notable current CMCR study, authorized by the 2015 Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, seeks to better understand the effect on driving of THC.CMCR Director Igor Grant describes the study as “one of the first in the United States that looks in great detail into different dosages of THC and their effect on driving.” Each research day begins with study participants — already experienced with cannabis — entering driving simulators to undergo driving assessments.Participants then consume THC in specified doses and continue over the course of the day to undergo driving assessments.Meanwhile, their bodily fluids are drawn over the course of several hours.The study seeks to determine how multiple dosing strengths of cannabis affect driving and for what duration driving impairment continues after cannabis use.The research also seeks to determine if saliva or breath tests can substitute for blood samples in determining cannabis intoxication and if sobriety tests administered with iPads can supplement standard field sobriety tests.The study is led by Thomas Marcotte, a professor of psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine.

Another notable CMCR study, tentatively set to begin at the end of the summer, concerns autism.The research, which includes both a clinical trial and a basic science component, investigates the effect of CBD on severe autism spectrum disorder, a condition that affects one in every 68 U.S.children.In the clinical trial — overseen by Doris Trauner, a professor of neurosciences and pediatrics at UCSD — researchers will administer oral doses of CBD or a placebo to 30 children who have been diagnosed with moderate to severe autism.CBD interacts with the endocannabinoid system, a network in the human body that regulates various physiological and cognitive processes.Researchers will attempt to determine whether CBD is safe for the study population to use, whether it addresses their symptoms, whether it alters neurotransmitters or improves brain connectivity, and if so, how.In the basic science component of the study, researchers will use cells from the skin and blood of participants and, in Grant’s words, “re-engineer these cells to be neurons — to create little brain organoids, if you will.” This feat of re-engineering will allow researchers to observe how the cells function and, if CBD has benefited the subjects of the clinical trial, to investigate the associated mechanism of action.The study will be conducted with funding from the Wholistic Research and Education Foundation.Grant notes that Proposition 64 allocates $2 million annually to the CMCR.The center intends to use the funding partly to support its core facility and partly to fund small-scale pilot studies that might be conducted at the center itself, at other UC campuses or at campuses of other universities in California.As an interdisciplinary venture involving UC Irvine’s School of Medicine and School of Law, the center includes basic medical science, clinical science and jurisprudence in its purview.Daniele Piomelli, director of the center — as well as a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the UC Irvine School of Medicine — calls cannabis “a quintessential multidisciplinary problem.” Because much existing cannabis law was written when medical knowledge about cannabis was scarce, he says, new knowledge to underpin new legislation is urgently needed.Piomelli further argues that because cannabis encompasses, for example, commercial and agricultural dimensions, researchers across disciplines must engage with each other to find realistic solutions to cannabis-related problems.“If medicine and science and law don’t talk to one another,” he says, “we’ll never have sensible legislation.” In that spirit, the center has two directors — Piomelli representing the medical side of the interdisciplinary undertaking and Robert Solomon, a clinical professor of law at UC Irvine School of Law, representing the legal side.About 30 faculty members across law and medicine are involved in the center’s work.