UNC Family Medicine faculty Leah Ranney, PhD, Sarah Kowitt, PhD, MPH, and team were recently rewarded a five-year, $2.9 million grant studying cannabis warnings. The award from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will go towards research involving a legal analysis of existing cannabis warning regulations, interviews with cannabis regulators, the development of evidence-based cannabis warnings, and online experiments to implement more effective warnings that inform people about the risks associated with cannabis use.
Cannabis is the third most commonly used substance in the U.S., with almost half of all adults admitting to trying it. It can cause physical harm, like chronic bronchitis, cognitive impairment, such as memory loss, and other types of risks, including car crashes. Despite these harms, many people don’t know or underestimate the risks. Warning labels on cannabis packages can help people understand the risks, but the current cannabis warning labels are small, difficult to read, and hard to understand.
Ranney states, “The prevalence of cannabis use is higher in states with legalized cannabis and with increasing state legalization, the cannabis market is anticipated to grow, intensifying the need for effective evidenced-based warnings that grab the attention of cannabis consumers. The outcome of our research will help inform people about the potential harms of cannabis use.”
The study will analyze current warning regulations and test different warning characteristics on newly developed cannabis warning labels to see which warning characteristics are most effective in communicating the harms of cannabis use. The research team will work with state regulators to ensure the newly developed cannabis warnings address current issues and challenges facing state regulators. The newly developed warnings will be shared with state regulators for future implementation and to contribute to evidence on the impact of state policies on cannabis use, which is a priority for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
“This study is the first of its kind on cannabis warnings,” states Kowitt, “Throughout the five years of the grants, we will examine how states have implemented regulations on warnings for cannabis product packages, experimentally develop a set of evidence-based cannabis warnings, and examine whether larger evidence-based warnings outperform existing warnings on product packages. These findings will be very useful to state regulators who have been tasked with setting their own regulations for cannabis warnings, often without a rigorous evidence base.”
The research team includes Drs. Ranney and Kowitt as Principal Investigators (MPIs). Co-Investigators include Kristen Jarman, MSPH from UNC Family Medicine; Rachel Callanan, JD, MNM, from the Public Health Law Center; Gillian Schauer, PhD, MPH, Executive Director for Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA); and epidemiologist, Julia Dilley, PhD, MES, from Oregon Health Authority.