DENVER (AP) — Colorado is poised to award more than $8 million to research marijuana to treat diseases, a step toward addressing complaints that little is known about pot’s medical potential.

The grants to be awarded by the state Board of Health are going to studies on whether marijuana helps treat epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The awards are relatively small, but they represent a new frontier for marijuana research. That’s because the Colorado grants are outside of the usual federal channels for approving marijuana research.

Marijuana activists complain that the federal approval process has stymied research on marijuana’s potential as medicine.

Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., allow marijuana use by people with various medical conditions. But under federal law, marijuana is considered a drug with no medical value.