Michigan universities can't study dispensary pot on campus. MSU went mobile

While cannabis is easy to access for Michigan adults, researchers have a much harder time studying it
Federal restrictions mean many positive and negative health effects of cannabis are under-studied
While cannabis is being reclassified federally, research may continue to be scarce

When Michigan residents walk into their neighborhood cannabis dispensaries, they see rows of colorful vapes, gummies, dap pens and other products of various potencies.

But Michigan State University cannabis researcher Omayma Alshaarawy sees something different.

“When I walk into a dispensary, I do not just see products on shelves,” said Alshaarawy, an associate professor of family medicine.“I see questions everywhere.”

But she isn’t allowed to answer those questions — not through conventional academic research methods, at least.

“We don’t have good measurements of cannabis because we cannot access those products being used,” said Alshaarawy. “We cannot experiment with them because there’s severe federal restrictions.”

With annual sales topping $3 billion, Michigan has one of the largest cannabis markets per-capita in the nation, yet it is near impossible for researchers studying the potential positive and negative effects of cannabis to get their hands on the products people actually use.

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Federal law prohibits cannabis use on the property of federally funded universities, even in states that have legalized cannabis. This hobbles university researchers from studying the products people are actually buying, because it prevents them from buying dispensary products or using their on-campus labs to study cannabis.

“These products are not theoretical. People in Michigan are already using them, and clinicians are being asked questions about them every day,” Alshaarawy said. “However, the science is moving much more slowly than the marketplace.

“I wish we could study the exact products more directly and realistically.”

That puts consumers questioning the effects those gummies could have on their bodies in a lurch, said Kevin Boehnke, assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Michigan Medical School

“People who are interested in exploring cannabis as medicine are often left in a situation where they kind of have to figure it out for themselves,” Boehnke told Bridge Michigan.

Researchers at MSU circumvent restrictions by going mobile: They use a customized research van to meet participants, log the cannabis the participant is using and monitor how they respond to the product. They have used the van to supplement their ongoing research since late 2024.

The observational research they can do is primitive, and subject to Michigan’s extreme weather. In winter, for instance, the cold can cause their equipment to malfunction and participants’ veins to constrict, making it difficult to draw blood.

A woman in a lab coat stands inside a large van with two seated young men. — Study team members demonstrate what participants can expect in the research van. (Courtesy of Omayma Alshaarawy)

And, while researchers offer $40 gift cards to participants, those aren’t the primary reason cannabis users come to the van to be studied, Alshaarawy said.

“They’re coming because they want to know,” said Alshaarawy, who spearheads the Cannabis Legalization in Michigan research group that uses the van. “They don’t know which is going to harm them or which is going to benefit them.”

Federal restrictions hamstring research

Recreational cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug at the federal level, which means it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Schedule I classification includes drugs like heroin, LSD and ecstasy. And because Schedule I drugs have no federally accepted medical use, there are severe restrictions on how those drugs can be researched.

While recreational cannabis use is legal in 24 states, and medical cannabis is legal in 40, federal restrictions mean researchers can only study cannabis samples from seven federally approved suppliers — far fewer than the number that supply the near-$30 billion cannabis industry in the US.

This means that, while Michiganders have easy access to a wide variety of cannabis products, those that researchers can access are much more limited.

“There’s just so much more heterogeneity in what is available to you and I as a consumer who lives in Michigan versus what’s available to me as a scientist that I can take into the lab and administer to people in Michigan,” Boehnke said..

Government cannabis is also much weaker than what Michiganders have easy access to. In products from Michigan dispensaries, the average potency of the psychoactive chemical THC hovers around 20% according to a 2023 study, with some forms containing as much as 90% THC.

Potencies from federal sources are often in the single digits, said Boehnke.

‘Figure it out for themselves’

Strict federal regulations mean attention is directed primarily to harm and misuse. Researchers say that has left potential medical uses understudied.

For instance, while cannabis may have pain management properties, doctors are hesitant to prescribe it. This is despite the significant risks of prescription painkillers.

“Cannabis far outweighs opioids in terms of safety,” said Boehnke.

A pivot toward cannabis as a painkiller could be especially effective in Michigan, where someone dies from an opioid overdose every 6 hours.

Despite cannabis’s positive properties, though, research has been “heavily weighted in favor of assessing harms and misuse and abuse and addiction, opposed to understanding therapeutic value of cannabis,” said Boehnke. “A lot of the more modern clinical trial literature is extremely limited.”

Federal restrictions lifting?

Federal classification of cannabis is shifting, which may allow more cannabis research.

After efforts from the Biden and Trump administrations, the US Department of Justice in April reclassified specific medical cannabis products to Schedule III, a category that includes some prescription drugs. Separate hearings to reclassify recreational cannabis as Schedule III are slated to begin later this month.

But whether the reclassification will lead to more clinical trials — which would bring better evidence on cannabis use in clinical settings — is unclear.

Products that undergo clinical trials, for instance, are subject to FDA regulations. For clinical trials to become widespread, cannabis manufacturers would need to make their products to pass those standards.

“It will really depend whether any of these cannabis companies decide, ‘Hey, I want to pursue the manufacturing standards necessary to get a product through clinical trial testing,’” said Boehnke.

Pregnant moms still at risk

While researchers acknowledge that reclassifying cannabis as a Schedule III drug may increase research, some are worried it sends a signal to pregnant moms that cannabis is safe for them to use.

Cannabis use during pregnancy is associated with pre-term birth, low birth weight and fetal death, according to a 2025 analysis.

However, 1 in 6 Michigan moms use cannabis during pregnancy to manage symptoms like nausea, pain and anxiety.

“They believe that cannabis is natural and safer than pharmaceutical medications or drugs,” said Ban Al-Sahab, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at MSU. “Rescheduling may unintentionally reinforce these beliefs.”

To counteract that, “we need to do more work to help campaigns to raise awareness among these women, and make sure women abstain from using cannabis during pregnancy,” said Al-Sahab.

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