Kentucky Center for Cannabis to study medical marijuana for cancer patients, opioid use

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- Plans are being made to conduct first of its kind cannabis use research in cancer patients and people who have opioid use disorders.

This Spring, Kentucky's House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize medical marijuana. It failed to pass the Senate.

Instead, lawmakers allocated $2 million to create the Kentucky Center for Cannabis through the University of Kentucky this year.

On Wednesday, Shanna Babalonis, Ph.D., the director of the center, presented the progress and plans before lawmakers in the interim joint committee meeting on health, welfare and family services.

"You would think that cancer and cannabis have been really well researched. Unfortunately, that's not the case," she said.

Now, in partnership with the research center and UK's Markey Cancer Center it will be.

The center will be administering edible marijuana to patients in an inpatient setting, with some receiving a placebo, to see how it impacts pain, nausea, appetite, mood, sleep outcomes and quality of life. The type of research Babalonis said is an incredibly rare opportunity.

"There's probably three other centers in the world that can do that. And so this is really world class," she said.

The trial will begin with prostate cancer patients then expand to other cancers. Enrollment is expected in August 2023 with the clinical trial expected to begin in April 2024.

"This is best case scenario," Babalonis said. "So, this is actually lightning speed for a clinical trial."

Kentucky State Rep. Kimberly Moser co-chairs the committee with Sen. Ralph Alvarado.

Both said it will be interesting to see what the research yields.

“I'm just excited that we were able to put this framework in place and really put UK and Kentucky at the forefront of research. It's critically important to study the safety and the efficacy of marijuana as a medicinal product,” Rep. Kimberly Moser, R-Taylor Mill, said.

Sen. Alvarado has been opposed to medical marijuana in the past because of the lack of research but Wednesday said this research could make a national impact.

"This has been always been my argument. I think that there's a lack of research on a lot of this topic and the fact that [Babalonis] stated that we have a lack of that, I think is important,” Alvarado said.

The research center also has already received a $2 million federal grant to study opioid use disorders and vaporized cannabis.

"We really want to know, can cannabis help with opioid withdrawal," Babalonis said.

As for possible negative outcomes of using THC in medicine -- the center is conducting a driving simulator study. It compared impairment levels of smoking marijuana to alcohol when driving.

Lawmakers said some other continued hesitations are the amount of THC that will be administered during these trials and if using the raw marijuana plant, rather than a by-product, is safe.

There is also a study focused on analyzing quality issues of CBD products in Kentucky and online including label inaccuracies and THC contamination.

To see a copy of the full PowerPoint Kentucky Center for Cannabis presented Wednesday click here.