Background: Corporate influence on research is nothing new, with numerous examples highlighting the role that sugar, oil, tobacco, alcohol, and other industries have played in shaping public health science and messaging. In 1946 the RJ Reynolds Tobacco company famously gave physicians cartons of Camel cigarettes to solicit their endorsement that Camels were the safest ones on the market. In response to the long history of industry influence efforts, guidelines have been established for how academic researchers and others engage with and report their activities in partnership with industry.
Objectives: This paper seeks to identify established guidelines for researchers in other industries and consider how they can be applied or modified for use with the nascent cannabis industry. We will then present a model set of guidelines for cannabis researchers.
Methods: An environmental scan of current regulations, rules, and best practices in the alcohol and tobacco industry’s interactions with researchers. A literature review on the history of industry engagement with academic researchers, the methods by which industry tries to shape research findings, and the trajectory of best practice guidelines for researchers.
Implications: By developing best practice guidelines early in the history of legalized cannabis we can help both researchers and industry avoid the conflicts that undermine trust in scientific findings about these products and industries. While these guidelines are designed for the commercial nature of the Canadian industry, it has applicability to other international models and relevance to researchers in countries that legalize non-medical cannabis.