Science Under Schedule I: Inside Washington State University’s Cannabis Research Program

Carrie Cuttler, PhD, Co-Director of the Center for Cannabis Policy Research and Outreach (CCPRO) at Washington State University

As cannabis education, interest, and innovation continues to gain traction in the country, research is still needed in a variety of avenues to keep up with the consumer demand. Institutions of higher education continue to prove to be instrumental in facilitating studies and promoting education. Washington State University (WSU) is uniquely positioned to accelerate the needed research and overcome the associated challenges, such as those presented by the federal scheduling of cannabis. Within the university is the Center for Cannabis Policy Research and Outreach (CCPRO), a multifaceted research center advancing cannabis research while navigating restrictive policy and regulation, aiming to provide much needed insights and science-backed data for the wider industry.

As Carrie Cuttler, PhD explains, the CCPRO provides practical support and guidance, as well as grants to investigators at WSU to support cannabis research. Dr. Cuttler is the co-director of the CCPRO at Washington State University. She is also an associate professor with the Department of Psychology and director of The Health and Cognition (THC) Lab, which she formed in her first year at the university in 2014. With over 70 researchers, the center is able to cover several topics. “We have a lot of cannabis researchers at WSU, in part because cannabis is legal in our state, so it really falls on us, especially as a land grant institution, to make sure that we are on top of the science of cannabis,” said Dr. Cuttler. As a land grant institution, “part of WSU’s mission is to conduct and disseminate research that benefits the citizens of Washington State,” the CCPRO website explains (1).

To support the research endeavors, there are four themes of the center: Health and Well-being, Public Policy and Safety, Economics, and Agricultural Research. With respect to research on well-being and cannabis, as Dr. Cuttler explains, the university conducts translational science which includes animal studies on the impact of cannabis on brain development, the effects of THC and CBD on pain, the effects of cannabis on mental health and stress, as well as the prevention of problematic cannabis use. Public policy research involves roadside detection, workplace safety, and the impacts on crime and the justice system from cannabis decriminalization. Economic research covers several industry topics, including taxation, banking, and cannabis workplace issues. Agricultural research focuses on industrial hemp grown for CBD, textiles, food, fiber, crop production, and pest management, all in compliance with state and federal law. For example, earlier this year, the university announced it had received a $5 million grant from the US Department of Energy for a six-year-long research study on the effects of biochar and hemp on crop rotation, examining benefits for soil health (2).

The CCPRO receives funds though Initiative 502 (I-502), the initiative that created regulations for a legal recreational cannabis market in the state. As the Department of Social and Health Services explains, part of the implementation of I-502, “creates a dedicated marijuana fund, consisting of excise taxes, license fees, penalties, and forfeitures, and specifies the disbursement of this money for a variety of health, education, and research purposes, with the remainder distributed to the state general fund” (3). The funds are allocated to various uses at the university, Dr. Cuttler explains. “Basically, we get a small percentage of the excise tax dollars from the sales of legal cannabis in our state, and we distribute those funds through various grant competitions, including a faculty seed grant competition. We have a graduate student summer research grant competition, and we also provide some financial support to students to share their research at cannabis conferences.”

Additionally, the CCPRO sponsors the Cannabis Research Seminar Series, run by graduate student Jeremy Boutin. The monthly seminars feature various speakers, usually graduate students and instructors, presenting their research findings. Recent seminars include“Non-Terpenoid Volatiles of Cannabis Sativa,” presented by graduate student Austin Alt, as well as “Teens And Young Adults’ Perceptions of Cannabis Edibles Packaging,” presented by Dr. Jessica Willoughby and professor Stacey Hust (4). “It's an outlet for some of our findings and a way for us to get together, chat, network and potentially find collaborations within the system,” Dr. Cuttler explains.

In 2014, when Dr. Cuttler first began at WSU, cannabis dispensaries were just opening their doors. She founded the THC Lab after determining that cannabis research in Washington State would be critical. Due to the barriers surrounding research on the acute effects of cannabis, she first examined the effects of chronic use, on cognition and memory, for example, then expanded the scope. “I started to find and use some legal workarounds to try to understand more about the acute effects of cannabis,” Dr. Cuttler explains. “I was analyzing data from a medical cannabis app, looking at symptom ratings before and after use as a function of different products and doses and whatnot. I also developed a Zoom method where we randomly assign people to purchase and use specific products sold at legal dispensaries, bring them home, use them at home, on Zoom. We observe them, and then we would look at various outcomes, again, predominantly focusing on acute effects on cognition.”

The research continued to expand and has recently hit new milestones. “Now I'm running proper placebo-controlled laboratory investigations of THC and some minor cannabinoids, collaborating with Dr. Ryan McLaughlin, who has a Schedule I license with the DEA [United States Drug Enforcement Administration], and we have FDA approval,” she explains. Additionally, at the time of our interview, Dr. Cuttler was conducting the first FDA-approved clinical trial of cannabis in the state. This study looked at the effects from a 20 mg dose of THC (a lower dose) and a 40 mg dose (a higher dose), aiming to see which aspects of memory are and are not affected by the acute intoxication. “Most research on memory is just focused on verbal memory, and some studies have looked at things like working memory, but they really haven't looked at the entire gamut of different kinds of memory, including prospective memory, temporal order memory, and false memory,” she explains. “What I'm finding is that acute cannabis intoxication negatively impacts basically every aspect of memory. We're not seeing much evidence that anything is very spared here.”

Another interesting occurrence has also been observed during this study, Dr. Cuttler states. The study participants are tested for an hour after inhaling cannabis, but must remain under observation for three more hours to ensure they are entirely sober, and they spend this time in a “chill out room” with concessions and entertainment. “We observe them through a one-way mirror, and we're finding very robust evidence for the munchies phenomenon – that when people are acutely intoxicated, they're eating about double the calories of people who are on the placebo,” she explains.

Dr. Cuttler is hopeful that this is the first of many research projects. Future studies will also investigate more aspects of cognition and use EEG to examine brain activity, she adds.

Though the research is significant and impactful, some challenges still discourage even the initiation of research. Though cannabis for medical uses became legal in the state in 1998 and for recreational uses over a decade ago, research has not grown substantially in that timeframe (5). As Dr. Cuttler explains, the steps to take in order to study the acute effects of cannabis are monumental, impeding the education to consumers. “Getting a DEA [US Drug Enforcement Administration] license alone can take upwards of 18 months, and before that, you need approval from the IRB or ethics board, you need approval from the FDA, and those approvals are not easy to get at all,” she states.

Dr. Cuttler also explains that until recently, the DEA had only allowed research using cannabis from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) drug supply, however, the cannabis was markedly different than the types sold legally in dispensaries, especially in terms of quality and potency. New policies have allowed cannabis closer to what is available on the market, yet other obstacles still remain. “A lot of those companies don't have the R&D done to support IND [Investigational New Drugs] from the FDA, so you can't get cleared through the FDA to use that cannabis, and if it is cleared, then they charge an exorbitant amount for it,” Dr. Cuttler explains. She adds that she has seen companies charge researchers $20,000 for a small amount of cannabis that might be sold in retail for $200, and such an expense can prove to be prohibitive to initiating research.

Several of the challenges surrounding cannabis research stem from the federal classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, alongside heroin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), all considered “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” by the DEA (6). “The Schedule I classification is really just keeping cannabis out of the hands of scientists and not keeping it out of the hands of the consumer, because in most states, there's some level of legal access to cannabis, and that is a really unfortunate situation that is not protecting public health at all,” Dr. Cuttler explains. If the scheduling of cannabis were to change, and laboratories were able to study cannabis bought from legal dispensaries, the amount of research on cannabis would increase drastically, she says. However, even in an institution equipped to conduct the research, the restrictions remain for now. “Because cannabis is a Schedule I drug, according to the federal government, and we are a federally funded institution, we have to abide by federal law, so it's very difficult to do research on the acute effects,” she states.

In looking toward potential new directions of cannabis research and education, Dr. Cuttler has seen a recent shift from a focus mainly on THC to interest into minor cannabinoids and terpenes. THC has been studied for its intoxicating, detrimental, and therapeutic effects, yet it is only one of more than 100 cannabinoids, she explains, and researchers are interested in the function, either alone or in combination, of the others. “I have been really getting into investigating cannabigerol, CBG, which is probably going to be the new CBD,” Dr. Cuttler explains. “It's not intoxicating, it's not impairing, but it does seem to have some therapeutic effects.” Additionally, apart from the plant itself, other areas of research have seen increasing interest. “We're also seeing a bit more of an uptick in research on effects of legalization on cannabis use patterns, the different populations using cannabis, that's very low hanging fruit to understand the impacts of legalization on people's use patterns.”

Though WSU does not currently offer a dedicated educational program, it remains a possibility for the future, and the university would be well-positioned to take this next step. In the meantime, conducting studies and disseminating the results will continue to contribute to the broader knowledge of cannabis and policies related to it. Despite restrictions surrounding it, cannabis research studies remain crucial for the understanding of the complex plant and its consumers.

References

1. Center for Cannabis Policy, Research, and Outreach. Cannabis Research and Guidance https://ccpro.wsu.edu/guidelines/ (accessed June 11, 2025).
2. McEvoy, E. Washington State University Launches $5M Study on the Effects of Hemp and Biochar on Soil Health. March 18, 2025. Cannabis Science and Technology. https://www.cannabissciencetech.com/view/washington-state-university-launches-5m-study-on-the-effects-of-hemp-and-biochar-on-soil-health (accessed June 11, 2025).
3. Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. Marijuana Legislation - Implementing Initiative 502 https://www.dshs.wa.gov/node/9049 (accessed June 11, 2025).
4. Center for Cannabis Policy, Research, and Outreach. Seminars https://ccpro.wsu.edu/seminars/ (accessed June 11, 2025).
5. Washington State Legislature. Chapter 69.51A RCW, MEDICAL CANNABIS https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=69.51A&full=true (accessed June 11, 2025).
6. United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Drug Scheduling https://www.dea.gov/drug-information/drug-scheduling (accessed June 11, 2025).