While the launch of the legalized cannabis industry in California is just one month away, the risks and health hazards that its workers will face remain largely unstudied, according to a UC Davis health professor.
Speaking to an audience of about 50 people gathered in Humboldt State University’s Goodwin Forum on Thursday evening, UC Davis public health sciences professor emeritus Marc Schenker said what little research has been conducted, including some by himself, has shown the cannabis workforce faces unique risks as well those inherent to other forms of mass agricultural production in the state.
What has stood in the way of this research being conducted, Schenker said, is a combination of the longstanding underground nature of the industry along with limited resources and political disagreements on cannabis.
“Most important is we start looking at these things,” Schenker said. “And they haven’t been looked at.”
Schenker’s visit to HSU is what Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research co-director and HSU sociology professor Josh Meisel called the beginning of a collaborative effort by academic institutions to begin filling in the knowledge gaps, especially with the state using tax revenue from cannabis to fund the research.
Top image: © Eric Limon | Dreamstime.com
