Embarcadero Hall opened its doors on Feb. 27 for a town hall about the risks and benefits of cannabis. UC Santa Barbara Life of the Party and the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences hosted Carrie Cuttler, associate professor and director of experiential training at Washington State University, as a presenter, followed by a panel of experts and a Q&A.

Life of the Party and psychological and brain sciences hosted Carrie Cuttler, PhD of Washington State University. Nexus file photo

Cuttler recently celebrated her 10th anniversary working at Washington State University. She currently directs the Health & Cognition lab that investigates the effects of chronic cannabis and acute cannabis intoxication on cognition, mental health and the stress response. Cuttler’s expertise focuses on the links between cannabis use and cognition, mental health and stress. She began the presentation by briefly discussing the history of cannabis use in the United States.

“Now, while cannabis was widely used as a medicine in the United States [in the 19th and 20th centuries], its use for its psychoactive properties was really brought to the U.S. by Mexican refugees back in 1910, then became quite popular among Black jazz musicians and other minorities,” Cuttler said. “Harry Anslinger, who was the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, really wasn’t too happy about that, and he led a campaign to outlaw the drug, alleging that its use led to violent crimes.”

In 1970, cannabis was classified as a Schedule I drug with high potential for abuse, which banned its medicinal use nationwide and reinforced its criminalization. Medical cannabis remained illegal in all states until 1996, when California became the first state to legalize it.

This classification of cannabis, according to Cuttler, effectively terminated all research on cannabis for decades. It has imposed legal restrictions and hurdles that impede research on its acute effects, challenging researchers working at federally funded institutions in the U.S. Researchers spent years applying to agencies before they could administer cannabis for lab experiments.

Cuttler said that while the most commonly known cannabinoid is cannabidiol (CBD), many other minor phytocannabinoids are less studied. She recently published one of the only clinical trials on one of these lesser-known cannabinoids, cannabigerol (CBG).

“We found that it significantly reduced anxiety and stress in humans without producing any intoxicating or impairing effects, which is really exciting,” Cuttler said.

The presentation then moved into a panel and Q&A. Panelists included Cuttler, Emergency Medicine Specialist affiliated with Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Christopher Flynn, Director of the UCSB Alcohol & Drug Program Jacqueline Kurta and Life of the Party representative and fourth-year psychological & brain sciences major Jakob Weiner.

One attendee asked if they noticed any significant effects of chronic use of cannabis on motivation and ambition. Cuttler said they found general apathy towards cannabis use, but not extreme amotivational disorders or psychiatric disorders characterized by lack of motivation, apathy, detachment and blunted emotion, aligning with results of a study her team published.

“It’s not this profound amotivational syndrome that you get, you know, in your propaganda, in your movies and all the sort of stereotypes of cannabis users — the science doesn’t really support that,” Cuttler said.

The panel also touched on the adverse effects of chronic cannabis use and highlighted one potential resulting condition, cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), which involves repeated experience with nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain due to long-term, high-dose cannabis use. Flynn said that many young patients approach him with CHS symptoms but get confused during recovery with unclear information about cannabis and wellness online.

“We’ll request that they stop using, [but] some individual users don’t believe that because, remember, what have you guys seen on the internet? Wellness, right?” Flynn said.

He clarified that cannabis can be helpful for nausea intermittently and at low potency, but can be harmful at high dosage over many months.

Weiner shared that, as a Life of the Party representative, he has had people come up to him sharing experiences resembling symptoms of CHS but that the condition is not covered or studied much on a greater scale.

“Like Dr. Cuttler is saying, it’s not heavily researched on, and it’s still being seen. But I think it’s just good to know that this is a possibility of what can happen from [chronic cannabis use],” Weiner said.

A version of this article appeared on p. 7 of the Mar. 6, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.