Ep. 459: Dr. Ethan Russo

Cannabis Economy

Dr. Ethan Russo, Research Director of the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (ICCI), discusses ways to create a better, safer cannabis. Russo points out the dissonance that exists between public opinion and regulators - while 80-90% of the public already believes that cannabis is a medicine, the medical community must conduct clinical trials in order to prove that cannabis is a medicine. Russo also dismisses the idea that cannabis is an understudied substance: "Cannabis is actually very likely the most studied drug in the history of mankind, because there have been decades of research on it, mainly focused on its harms." Now, he says, we must collect the same amount of research on cannabis's therapeutic uses.