Hofstra University professor and clinical psychologist Nehal Vadhan sat in a lab next to three metal and glass pipes that, if he receives federal authorization, will be filled with marijuana in several months.

Much of the research center, which sits inside a building with cinder-block walls on the Queens-Nassau County line in Glen Oaks, has an institutional feel. But the specialized ventilation systems for cannabis smoke, a room for psychedelics with a reclining lounge chair and a bar set up with stools facing a one-way mirror signal that this is a different type of lab.

Tens of millions of Americans use marijuana every year, many just to get high, others because they believe it will help with a medical condition. Millions more take psychedelics. Yet there has been relatively little ri

See Full Page