Our History

CCOE History

The CCOE's Story in Massachusetts From 2017-2021

The CCOE is a registered Massachusetts 501c3 non-profit organization that conducts citizen-science-focused population studies and programs in the areas of community engagement, medical cannabis, adult-use cannabis, and social justice in the cannabis industry. 

The CCOE was founded by Cannabis Community Care and Research Network (C3RN) formed by Dr. Marion McNabb and Randal MacCaffrie, which operated in Massachusetts as a cannabis research, education, & advocacy company in operation from 2017 - 2020. C3RN was able to accomplish: advocating for the cannabis research license in Massachusetts, forming a four-year running research and education partnership with UMass Dartmouth, conducting six cannabis adult-use consumers and patients research studies, and publishing the research findings. C3RN worked with Holyoke Community College to establish the Cannabis Education Center at Holyoke Community College. 

The C3RN leadership team won the first annual Cannabis Ancillary Business start-up competition hosted by the Boston University Questrom School of Business and Green Lion Partners in 2017. The winning concept was to create a virtual Cannabis Center of Excellence (CCOE) that Dr. Marion McNabb is the current President and Founder. The C3RN team conducted unique cannabis research studies and developed and taught undergraduate and graduate cannabis-focused educational programs, and led over 20 high-level education and networking events in Massachusetts related to cannabis from 2018 - 2020. C3RN was also a Cannabis Control Commission State Social Equity Training Vendor in 2019-2020, teaching eleven courses on cannabis retail, business operations and establishment, medical cannabis, and municipal process, host community law and agreements, and more hired by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. C3RN donated all of its work, data, and educational materials to form the Virtual Cannabis Center of Excellence in 2020. The CCOE studies are all reviewed and approved by the UMass Dartmouth Institutional Review Board (IRB) - with the exception of what other universities noted below - for human subjects’ ethical clearance. Studies conducted include:

• 2021-2022 Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study with Medicinal Genomics
• 2021 New Jersey Cannabis Legalization and Social Justice Study with Rider University
• 2020-2021 COVID-19 and Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Study
• 2020-2021 Environmental Sustainability in Cannabis Cultivation
• 2019 Veterans Health and Medical Cannabis Study 
• 2018-2019 Medical Cannabis Patient and Consumer Study. 

This resource collaborative is housed at the Cannabis Center of Excellence, INC. This work is made possible with funding from partners and collaborators.