July 2021

Dr. Ziva Cooper is the Director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative in the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Department of Anesthesiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Her current research involves understanding variables that influence both the therapeutic potential and adverse effects of cannabis and cannabinoids through double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.

Current funded projects include 1) understanding differences between men and women in their response to the abuse-related and pain-relieving effects, and the role that circulating hormones and endocannabinoids contribute to these differences, 2) the potential for THC and CBD to reduce reliance on opioids, 3) impact of cannabis use on HIV-associated inflammation, and 4) the effectiveness of cannabidiol to address symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Cooper served on the National Academies of Sciences Committee on the Health Effects of Cannabis that recently published a comprehensive consensus report of the health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids. She is past president of the International Study Group Investigating Drugs as Reinforcers, a Board Director for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, an Associate Editor of The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, and is on several Editorial Boards of journals including Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research and Neuropsychopharmacology.