About the Cannabis Research Institute: An Interview with Reginald Gaudino, PhD

In our Higher Education: Research Initiatives That Deepen Our Understanding of Cannabis supplement, Cannabis Science and Technology interviewed Reginald Gaudino, PhD, Director of Cannabis Research Institute and Discovery Partners Institute.

In this video clip, Dr. Gaudino explains the Cannabis Research Institute (CRI) and its focus on equity, research, and policy to benefit all of Illinois, especially rural communities.

Check out our interactive supplement to read the full expert interviews.

Transcription

Madeline Colli: Why was the cannabis Research Institute formed? How is it funded, and what are some of the mandates?

Dr. Reginald Gaudino: The Cannabis Research Institute (CRI) was formed because of a desire by the governor, JB Pritzker, to be able to have a science-based or backed, equity driven, and one of the unique things about Illinois is that the equity is written into the legislation. So, as opposed to an afterthought. So, science-backed, equity-driven cannabis program that actually used real science and data to inform its policy making. That was kind of how and why CRI came about.
It was then funded out of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA), which is the tax or the kind of the cannabis regulation and tax act that Illinois put into place, and so certain amount of money is earmarked and goes to the Illinois Department of Human Services that then distributes money for use in a number of different ways. One of those ways is to give $7 million to the University of Illinois to start the Cannabis Research Institute. And after that whole thing was was kind of put in place, they started to look for a director, and I applied for the job at that point.
The mandates are rather interesting, and I think really kind of helped distinguish this program from programs in other states. So, the mandates are that we have a community-focused program, where we have programs that develop community, academic partnerships, that have a view into equity and social justice, social impact, kind of research. So there has to be research on how the cannabis program is affecting the state. We have to have geographical equity. Because, if you were to look at a map of or a distribution census map, you'd see that a good part of Illinois' population actually exists within the city of Chicago. And so because of that, there's not always a great deal of geographic equity. The program has to have that built in. Then we also have to have kind of a community engagement and programs that bring the community in and get their opinions in. And when we talk about the community, we're not just talking about end users. We're talking about all users, and I use the word stakeholder, for lack of a better word, but, all stakeholders. So, in the groups of stakeholders include basically every group of individuals you can think of. So from the end users, doctors, lawyers, first responders, and the point being is that you know each of those groups have either knowledge gaps or basis of information from which they work from. The goal is to be able to identify what information needs to be developed so that we can use that information and do research in those areas, whether it be medical, whether it be social, whether it be agronomic, whatever it is, so that we can actually build policy that will or help not us build policy, but whether we can inform people to build policy that the policies are actually sane and actually are impactful. Part of that is why we have CRI's kind of mission vision is from seed to social impact, right? When we say that, what we mean is we're looking at all things, because all those things impact the state. From the agronomic side, Illinois is a big ag state, but you wouldn't know that from if you looked at hemp, because hemp is not an area where Illinois ranks. You know, as high as it does for other things, to the medical therapeutics, right? So, we're very interested in the benefits and the harms, that could potentially come from, from cannabis and hemp. And then to how do those programs, how does the plant itself, how do the therapeutics impact society and how does that information need to be parsed and distributed so that we can fill in those gaps and kind of try to help remove stigma and move things forward.

Colli: It sounds very intricate, but really interesting.

Dr. Gaudino: It is intricate. It's a lot of work, and it'd be really easy if we focus on any one of those three areas, right? And if you look at other programs around the United States, a lot of universities have chosen to engage in in one or the other, but very few, if any, are looking at that entire spectrum. So, and that actually kind of impacts how we approach things, because from the perspective of Illinois, where outside of Chicago, which is Cook County, and what are called the collar counties, it's the counties that are literally attached to Cook County. A lot of the agriculture happens in other places in Illinois. The whole goal of, I think, what the state wanted, and what we're trying to do is to try to lift the state up as a whole, so that we can improve, the plight of those farmers who who are not able to benefit from being able to grow hemp because there are not locally sourced processing plants and those kind of things, or because there's nobody has taken the time to develop a variety of hemp that grows really well in the Midwest. As opposed to where it's been grown developed other places. We're really focused on trying to find ways that our work can impact the state by bringing the the entire state up.