An Essex County medical marijuana producer has pledged $100,000 to the Arthritis Society for research on marijuana as treatment for osteoarthritis.
Leamington-based Aphria Inc. is one of two licensed producers from Ontario that pledged $100,000 each to fund the first robust investigation on medical cannabis’ impact on arthritis pain management.
“The research right now is reasonably experimental, we have a lot of anecdotal information, but not a lot of hard evidence to be able to say that from a pain and inflammation perspective, medical cannabis is the right treatment and safe and effective,” said Joanne Simons, chief missions officer of the Arthritis Society.
Simons said the Arthritis Society was in full control of the recipient of the research grant and neither of the marijuana suppliers, the other being Peace Naturals Project from Stayner, Ont., had the ability to designate where the money was directed.
Over three years, $120,000 will go towards research conducted by Dr. Jason McDougall of Dalhousie University in Halifax, one of the foremost pain researchers in the world according to the Arthritis Society.
