Results of a state-funded study in Utah designed to gauge marijuana's impact on pain might not be ready until after voters in the state decide on a medical marijuana ballot initiative in November.
Utah Science Technology and Research executive director Ivy Estabrooke says that strict federal regulations around marijuana delayed the study for nearly a year and a half.
Estabrooke says the study's findings can still be useful for doctors and patients even if they're too late to influence voters.
Participants in the study will be given chocolate pudding laced with different combinations of the substances in marijuana along with a placebo to determine the effects on pain.
If approved, the ballot initiative would not allow people to smoke marijuana but instead limit them to topical, edible and oil products.
