MINNEAPOLIS — The adult-used cannabis bill Governor Tim Walz into law last May created the framework for buying, selling and using recreational marijuana in this state, but the legislation also mandated that a Cannabis Research Center be set up to track the impact of legalization. The University of Minnesota has launched that center this week.
“Ultimately, we hope to shape what's happening in Minnesota to improve the health of all Minnesotans,” said Professor Traci Toomey, a public health policy expert at the U of M’s School of Public Health. She has been tapped to lead the new research hub.
“We might look at things like, does it affect traffic crashes in Minnesota? Does it affect emergency room use? Does it affect positive health outcomes whole populations of people?”
The center will be housed in the U's West Bank Office building, but researchers expected to collaborate with agencies across the state to gather information and identify trends.
“We want to partner other state agencies when we can because they have data we don't have and we can help analyze that data and help answer some of the questions if they don't have the capacity to do that.”
Toomey says the center will track the racial equity aspects of the new cannabis law, elements of the legislation that were designed to compensate for the disproportionate impact of previous laws on people of color and their communities.
“We want to know what happens with that. Are the licenses being fairly distributed? Are things improving in communities that have been previously really hurt by the cannabis policy?”
During the cannabis debate at the State Capitol lawmakers heard conflicting statistics about the public health impacts of cannabis legalization in other states. The U of M hopes this cannabis research center will be a trusted source of fact-based information the public and policymakers can rely on moving forward.
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