A pharmacologist with the University of Saskatchewan is research how cannabinoids work at a molecular level, to understand how these drugs related to THC from cannabis, work on our bodies and how they could help with pain, epilepsy, sleep or appetite.

Dr. Robert Laprairie explains that cannabinoids are not just in the cannabis plant. We have them in our own bodies, so his research is to try to develop a new class of drugs that work on our own cannabinoid system. So far, from testing on animals, they have been able to reduce neuropathic pain various forms of epilepsy, by about 50 per cent.

The research has been awarded some funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which Laprairie says will go towards a piece of equipment that would allow them to screen thousands of drug molecules in a single day.