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The director of William Paterson University’s Cannabis Research Institute, Rahi Abouk, has been awarded a shared $200,000 research grant from The Arnold Ventures Foundation to examine the impact state laws legalizing medical cannabidiol (CBD) have had on substance use patterns and crime rates. The Foundation supports evidenced-based policy solutions that aim to “maximize opportunity and minimize injustice.”
Abouk, a health economics professor in William Paterson’s Cotsakos College of Business, shares the grant with his longtime research collaborator, David Powell, a professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School and senior economist at RAND Corporation—a non-profit, nonpartisan research organization focused on policy issues.
“With increasing policy shifts toward medical CBD legalization, this study aims to provide data-driven insights into how such legislation influences public health and safety outcomes,” Abouk says. “The findings will contribute to ongoing policy discussions surrounding cannabis regulation, harm reduction, and criminal justice reform.”
Their research will compare data from US states with medical CBD laws to those without such laws, both before and after the adoption of the laws. As part of this process, Abouk and Powell will also revisit the relationship between medical marijuana laws and opioid mortality to tackle recent conflicting findings on how medical marijuana laws may impact the opioid epidemic.
He and Powell have collaborated on research numerous times in the past, for studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse, among others, and their work has been published by major outlets including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Now in its sixth year, William Paterson University’s Cannabis Research Institute, comprised of faculty and staff from a range of academic disciplines, provides evidence-based scientific and social scientific information on topics related to cannabis, as well as opioid drugs and other substances. Abouk, who has published 26 peer-reviewed research articles, has served as the Center’s director since its inception.
03/10/25
