The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) said in a report that more than 4,300 scholarly articles about cannabis were published in 2022.
According to the report, the number of peer-reviewed cannabis studies has increased this year to over 30,000, up from less than 3,000 in the 1990s and less than 2,000 in the 1980s. The vast majority of current cannabis studies focus on the plant’s potential medicinal uses.
NORML conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature on cannabis from 2000 to 2021, looking at its potential therapeutic effects on a wide range of medical conditions including chronic pain, Huntington’s disease, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many others. The assessment looks at how the field of cannabis research has expanded over time. As NORML put it, “investigators’ grasp of cannabis’ amazing power to combat disease has expanded as clinical research into the medicinal benefit of cannabinoids has increased,” according to a report by High Times.
Scientists are now looking into how cannabinoids might affect disease. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, most research focused on how marijuana could temporarily ease some disease symptoms, like nausea caused by chemotherapy for cancer.
