CA University Launches Marijuana Institute

A California State University in the famous marijuana growing region of Humboldt County has launched an academic institute devoted exclusively to marijuana.

The Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research at Humboldt State University utilizes the skills and experience of faculty members from the professional fields of sociology, psychology, politics, geography and economics.

"If anyone is going to have a marijuana institute, it really should be Humboldt State." said HIIMR co-chair Dr. Erick Eschker.? "It has the potential to be a world-class institute."? Eschker, an economist, is currently studying marijuana production's impact on Humboldt County employment.

The main goal of the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research is to improve the physical, social, economic and environmental health of people and communities through the scientific study of cannabis.

An interdisciplinary institute, the HIIMR at Humboldt State University is hosting a series of marijuana lectures through Spring 2013 that are open to the public.

Marijuana-intensive topics include:

• Marijuana regulatory reform The campaign against marijuana planting
  Effects of cultivation on local wildlife
• Environmental impacts of marijuana production
  Multi-state marijuana legalization efforts
• Netherlands drug policy
• Economic impacts of pot legalization

The objectives of the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research are to:

• Create a high-profile institute within Humboldt State University to provide marijuana policy analysis
• Promote scientific and scholarly opportunities for faculty, staff and students
• Encourage scholarly collaborations with researchers from other institutions
• Serve as a marijuana-related research clearinghouse

The Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research plans to engage in activities which include:

• Collecting, analyzing and disseminating data to the public and to policymakers
• Collaborating with agencies and institutions to support and enhance projects and goals
• Submitting proposals for internal and external research funding
• Preserving and archiving data via the HSU Library Special Collections Unit

Research goals focus on data collection and assessment methods to enhance knowledge available to communities, researchers and educators in understanding marijuana's relation to the economy, workforce development, health, environment, and community relations.

HIIMR faculty member research interests include:

• Measuring the size and impact of marijuana production on the local economy and the economic impacts of possible legalization of marijuana production and consumption
• Assessing impacts on communities, environmental impacts, and potential community responses
• Determining how attitudes and behaviors change based on an individual's perceptions of the social atmosphere regarding marijuana, and how marijuana use affects health outcomes
• Examining evolving community attitudes towards marijuana cultivation and communities, and the history of marijuana control on California's North Coast.
• Explaining medical marijuana advocacy organizational policy reform tactics at every level of government and regulatory alternatives including medical legalization, 'lowest priority' laws and non-punitive sentencing.
• Determining the ecological and public health impacts of marijuana production on rural communities and identifying the nature of environmental crimes committed by the industry, impacts on public and private lands, and how law enforcement, public health officials, and policy makers respond
• Studying the 'shadow economy,' big data, surveillance, economic variance in pricing of marijuana?
• Determining the policy and practices that reduce harm to people, communities, and the environment from marijuana use and drug policy
• Determining the chemical components and how this relates to medicinal properties, long-term effects on children who are exposed to marijuana in-utero or early in life, the true prevalence of marijuana use among different sectors of our community and differences between medical and recreational use.
• Understanding local physicians and medical marijuana ethical issues and de-watering of California's North Coast streams
• Estimating the production function of the marijuana industry and the value of the industry in Humboldt County for IMPLAN to measure the impact of legalization on the local economy.

HIIMR faculty has stated the Institute is not about marijuana advocacy but rather top-level research which is meticulously conducted in order for society to have questions about marijuana answered via hard data (as opposed to conjecture, fallacy and guesswork).

The Institute is working to create a special section of the Humboldt State University Library devoted to marijuana, and the Institute looks forward to hosting major marijuana research conferences for national and international marijuana researchers.?

The Institute needs funding.

Californiality encourages able donors worldwide to financially contribute toward the definitive research data and analysis provided through the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research at Humboldt State University in California.

Source: http://www.californiality.com/2012/11/ca-university-launches-marijuana.html

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