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MHCC announces $1.4M for research on cannabis and mental health

October 28, 2020  By Grow Opportunity staff


The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) is funding 14 community-based research projects that will investigate how cannabis use affects “underserved populations” across the country.

Each project is to receive up to $100,000 over two years to explore “significant gaps” in research on cannabis and mental health among Indigenous, Métis, 2SLGBTQ+, senior, immigrant, refugee, ethnocultural, and racialized (IRER) populations, as well as other communities who experience layers of oppression.

Six of the 14 funded projects are Indigenous led, which will be the first Indigenous-led examinations of cannabis use and mental health.

“These six projects offer an opportunity for First Nations and Métis to invest in research that honours their own language and culture, the foundation of their world views,” said Dr. Carol Hopkins, executive director at the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation. “That’s a step in the right direction toward the decolonization of Indigenous knowledges.”

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“It’s important to examine the link between mental health and cannabis use through social, political and economic lenses,” said Aber Abdulle, who will be project manager for research by the Centre for Resilience and Social Development. Abdulle will be looking at how these factors intersect among immigrant, refugee, ethno-cultural and racialized populations.

 


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