Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is looking to partner with one of the state’s prospective medical cannabis growers to study how the plant effects children with autism. The state has yet to award the first licenses to grow and dispense medical cannabis.

The school’s Dean of Education Gary Sasso confirmed the university wants to collect some of the first quantitative data on cannabis therapy amid growing anecdotal evidence from parents of autistic children. Pennsylvania is one of the few states that specifically allows children with autism to be treated with cannabis.

Sasso said while the effects of cannabis are largely unknown, it appears to lack certain side effects of psychotropic drugs that are currently used to treat autism.  The university has a history of research and working with autistic children under its Center for Promoting Research to Practice and has organized symposiums on the topic.