The project of the "INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH DATABASE ON CANNABIS (INDICA)" draws on the research approach of Citizen Science . The Anglicisms point out that the main ideas of such a research strategy originated came from the English-speaking world, above all from the field of environmental research. However, they have already established in German-speaking countries and are implemented in research projects with different content
(cf. www.buergerschaffenwissen.de).
Legitimate critical objections lead to Citizen Science
The background to the development of Citizen Science are critical objections to other scientific working methods that affect the method and the way of data collection as well as their statistical evaluation, interpretation and the conclusions derived.
The scientific monitoring of social developments, especially in the context of AI-supported modelling, in recent years has repeatedly made clear that the portfolio of data for a realistic depiction of processes is prone to errors - especially when it is collected from institution, that are "living in the ivory tower". The main reason is that important explanatory data will be overlooked or not accessible to a scientific data collection from researchers work with a exclusively theoretically framework.
Mathematical models are not always suitable to descript real developments and for forecasting them appropriately. Such research strategies are particularly error-prone when there are no feedback loops with lived empirical experiences. It is obvious that existing statistical relationships cannot be interpreted appropriately if there is no dedicated verification in reality and the voices of the researched have no place in the conclusions that worked out. As a result, there is a risk that interpretations of the data presented have little practical value or, in the worst case, ignore people's needs.
INDICA - a research concept for and with Cannabis patients
The fact that research on the subject of "Cannabis as medicine" is currently mainly on affected patients and not with them has encouraged us to give our project a fundamentally different strategic research framework. It should be pointed out that there are, for example, clear differences in the consumption patterns of affected patients who are in a phase of self-medication and users with a substance control disorder. A hasty judgment by experts and the resulting stigmatization causes fear to affected of being subject to a premature misjudgment. By including those affected people in the research work, this misjudgment with all its consequences for Cannabis patients can be counteracted. In this way, those directly affected patients, who are often forced to (still) be in the self-medication phase, can be spared from complications during treatment.
INDICA was created in direct cooperation between academically oriented scientists, partners of the civil society and actors, primarily from self-help Cannabis-patients in Germany. However, INDICA will also build a bridge to other countries according to this model and try to generate qualitative and quantitative data sets and knowledge over large areas and longer periods of time. All involved people agree that our research concept with the orientation to Citizen Science is best met:
"Citizen Science describes the participation of people in scientific processes who are not institutionally bound in this scientific area. Participation can range from the short-term collection of data to an intensive use of free time in order to be developed into a research topic together with scientists and/or other volunter actions. Although many volunteer researchers have an academic education, this is not a necessary for participating in research projects. However, it is important to comply with scientific standards, which include transparency regarding the data collection methods and the public discussion of the results.” (from the Green Paper Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany, pdf, p. 13)
We want to use this research approach, which is recognized by science and has long been practiced in various fields of research, in order to open up the treasure of knowledge and experiences of Cannabis-patients in regular, but also in self-initiated treatments. The central idea is to generate knowledge about Cannabis as medicine through various participation formats for Cannabis-patients and practitioners and in this way to help Cannabis-medicine to a recognized place in the treatment of illnesses and conditions.
Why is the INDICA project a Citizen-Science-project?
Based on the central objective mentioned above, the INDICA-project has fundamental characteristics that distinguish it from clean academic research strategies and with which it is assigned to citizen science:
(1) The central research interests of INDICA have been and are already being formulated through the participation of people who hope to get help in overcoming diseases and conditions through Cannabis. This ensures that their perspectives in the research project are given central importance as early as the project planning phase.
(2) With this background, the survey instruments for data collection were developed, tested and approved together with the affected humans.
(3) While to be involved in development of focus and design of research Cannabis patients are active part in the research process.
(4) Cannabis patients are the main group of those who make it possible to build a research database with their data donation.
(5) They are also the ones who motivate their relatives, therapists or other affected persons to participate in data collection. In this way, regional, temporally complex and novel data sets on the subject of Cannabis as medicine are collected. These are collected via established web-based and analogue infrastructures.
(6) In turn, the data is evaluated according to priorities and with a focus on facts and relationships that have immediate practical significance for affected patients.
(7) The summary of the empirical findings and their interpretation takes place in a discursive process with the participants and in their real life references. With the inclusion of different sources of knowledge and far-reaching participation, original innovation potentials of knowledge generation are to be developed.
(8) The publication of the presented results and their public discussion until to the formulation of new insights complete the individual research steps in formats of active participation by Cannabis patients.
In this sense, INDICA is committed to modern, dialogical and participatory science communication.
Support for those affected patients and practitioners in the INDICA focus
It becomes clear that INDICA, with its reference to the strategies and methods of Citizen Science, stands for participatory and transdisciplinary research approaches. Through the early and comprehensive participation of Cannabis patients, their relatives and practitioners, the participants receive an equal position and are not degraded to "cheap assistant scientists". Rather, the expectation is that with Citizen Science innovative results can be presented that will make Cannabis more assertive as a medicine. With this idea, INDICA would like to contribute to decision-making in political and planning processes of health care and support those affected patients and their practitioners in relation to real-life, problem-oriented and real-life solutions to everyday problems.
