The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Aug. 13, edition that Federal Minister of Health Marjorie Michel has announced $24-million to create the Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that the consortium is funded through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). A group of 10 CIHR research teams from across Canada will work together to study how cannabis affects the brain in people of various ages. The consortium, announced Wednesday, aims to establish scientific evidence about both potential benefits and harms of cannabis, including its effects on epilepsy, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep, mental health and brain development in youth, and during pregnancy. Dr. Patricia Conrod, scientific director at CIHR's Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, says the researchers will also recruit more than 3,000 people of all ages and collect data about brain function, mental health and substance use across the lifespan. Dr. Conrod says that data will be open for other Canadian researchers to use in their own studies about cannabis.