The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of Rolling Stone’s editors or publishers.
As a nerd who loves sports, I look forward to the end of college basketball season every year. It’s one of my favorite opportunities to talk to friends, colleagues, and clients about cannabis research and the universities that conduct it. After reading this article, you may never be able to experience college basketball without thinking about growing weed for research, because I believe the schools affiliated with the cannabis research publication are ending generally doing well in the March Madness tournament.
The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as March Madness, is a United States-based tournament each spring featuring 68 college basketball teams competing for the national championship . It has become common for people to predict the outcome of each game and ultimately the final game. Even non-sports fans join in the fantasy parenthesis, imaginary sports scenarios predicting winners and losers. Typically, these stats and other factors are gleaned from snippets and superstitions to weigh Final Four predictions. Ultimately, the tournament culminates when only four teams remain to compete.
In predicting and completing a tournament bracket, experts and fans consider many factors apart from the available data on player and team performance statistics. I propose a new way to fill in a parenthesis or make choices on a whim: choose the teams according to the research on cannabis of the university. This is your chance to change the way you root for teams. My bet is that if a school conducts more cannabis research, I consider that to be a factor that they are more likely to perform well and potentially win the Final Four.
Ultimately, my technique (see below) is a great way to learn about cannabis research and the universities that do it, while playing sports – even watching the game.
Teams by Cannabis Research Publications
Here’s a quick guide to basing your choices on the quality of the university’s contributions to the field of cannabis research. You could conceivably choose or add any search term as a factor in your decision, such as “cannabinoid” or “psilocybin”. PubMed, or any other research database search engine on scientific and medical topics, may be used to identify research publications and author affiliations. I’ve compiled contributions from four research and basketball centers, and performance varies each year.
Here are a few candidates to watch, based on my findings on the number of university-affiliated cannabis research publications from January 2020 to February 22, 2022 (at the time of this writing) on PudMed: Columbia University (127 publications on the cannabis), Yale (117 publications), Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) (54 publications), University of Mississippi (20 publications), Harvard (137 publications) and University of Maryland (45 publications).
Sometimes it’s about quality, not just quantity of research. And of course, playing around with search terms, like “marijuana” instead of “cannabis,” or even adding “endocannabinoid” can open up new insights into where a region should be searched.
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Examining a historical legacy can provide some confidence in a university’s abilities, whether it’s sports or science. You too can play the game. Go to Pubmed and search for the schools that interest you. Cannabis research is a good way to see which universities excel in certain locations. You can even take it a step further and narrow down your fantasy team by specifying your search parameters, such as “cannabis and pain”.
In my picks, the teams leading cannabis research are Columbia and Yale this season. The advantage goes to Columbia University. Some of their recent work is both timely, impactful, and well-designed (such as their studies on cannabis and opioids). The later years of publication make up slightly more of Columbia’s total cannabis articles than Yale.
Summary and future directions
A fantastic college basketball league, with a points system for contributions to cannabis research, would undoubtedly have teams such as Yale and Columbia in the Finals. The other two top picks would be schools that have been publishing cannabis research continuously for decades, having also made some of the most important discoveries in cannabis research. For example, the University of Mississippi has grown cannabis for federal research programs and discovered many new cannabinoids. VCU is where the endocannabinoid system originated; often attributed to Israel, it was actually VCU researchers who discovered THC receptors. VCU was also the first university to study the anticonvulsant effects of cannabinoids.
While few universities have studied cannabis for more than 10 years, most schools have significantly increased their publications in the field in recent years. This activity creates a gap for cannabis companies to fill. For example, most schools do not have industry partners or cannabis education programs, which is an opportunity for companies looking for academic partners. This is important because academic partnerships can be essential for a cannabis company seeking to establish legitimacy in the field, develop training programs, contribute to public health and various types of research, or generate property. intellectual.
VCU has a rich historical heritage with many great researchers. This is where researchers discovered cannabinoid receptors and held some of the first cannabinoid research symposia in the country. They have been rewarded with substantial grants for many different projects. The late Billy Martin was a VCU professor accredited to “change the landscape of addiction research in this country” with his lab’s work on cannabinoids.
As colleges and universities step up cannabis research, we should not only be very impressed, but eager to engage, partner with, and support their efforts. And when it comes to fantasy college basketball tournaments, I say bet on cannabis.
I hope this cannabis-inspired Fantasy Four team inspires your basketball fandom and/or your interest in cannabis research. One day in a college arena, I hope to hear someone say, “Sure, they’ve got a great start, but have you seen their full review of cannabis potency?”
“Come on owls! — Jahan Marcu, Ph.D., Temple University (20 research publications)
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