With cannabis becoming more and more widely accepted by the mainstream, a Manhattan-based investor has dropped a few Ms to bring more awareness to its benefits. The alumnus of Harvard and MIT donated $9M to the schools to conduct further research on the plant.
According to the Harvard Gazette, Charles R. Broderick donated $4.5M each to Harvard and Massachusetts Institution of Technology to further analyze the health and behavioral of cannabis. Broderick's donation reportedly sets a new high for the biggest private donation made for independent research of cannabis. Broderick wants people to be more informed when they make decisions regarding the use of cannabis.
“Our desire is to fill the research void that currently exists in the science of cannabis,” Broderick said. “I want to destigmatize the conversation around cannabis — and, in part, that means providing facts to the medical community, as well as the general public,” he continued. “Then we’re all working from the same information. We need to replace rhetoric with research.”
The research over a year after the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shared a report which called for philanthropic organizations, private companies, public agencies, and others to create a more "comprehensive evidence base" on the effects, both short and long-term, of cannabis.
The $9M donation will go towards funding a three-year study exploring cannabis' impact on brain development, organs, and overall heatlh.