California

UC Irvine Considering Center to Study Marijuana

A Southern California university is considering creating a special center to study marijuana.

The Orange County Register says the University of California, Irvine is looking into creation of an interdisciplinary cannabis research institute.

It's the brainchild of Daniele Piomelli, a neurobiology professor who studies marijuana.

He says the institute would research the impact of cannabis on everything from medicine and the environment to business and culture.

Piomelli says the UC Irvine schools of medicine and law will lead the way for the institute but he's talked to the business, engineering, communications and other schools.

He hopes to have the institute running within a year.

Piomelli says he hopes to get state funding through Proposition 64, last year's measure that approved recreational marijuana use.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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