Steve Robinson, MD, forwards this good news for researchers in Cambridge, Mass: 

“Charles R. Broderick, an alumnus of Harvard University and MIT, has made gifts to both alma maters to support fundamental research into the effects of cannabis on the brain and behavior. The total gift of $9 million ($4.5 million to each institution) represents the largest donation to date to support independent research of the science of cannabinoids.

“The donation will allow experts in the fields of neuroscience and biomedicine at Harvard Medical School and MIT to conduct research that may ultimately help unravel the biology of cannabinoids, illuminate their effects on the human brain, catalyze treatments, and inform evidence-based clinical guidelines, social policies and the regulation of cannabis.””

Harvard Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry has long been a prohibitionist bastion, as Lester Grinspoon, MD, recounts in this memoir.

But now that most Americans have concluded that marijuana is beneficial —from first-hand experience or reports from trusted friends and family members— here come the “leading” academic institutions. —Fred Gardner, April 30, 2019

Bonus track