Dr. MJ Milloy received a million dollar research grant in 2015 to study the effects of cannabis use in people living with HIV/AIDS, because of his promising past research on the subject. However, since his grant, the excitement slowly waned as he stopped researching how cannabis directly affects the progression of the disease in monkies and humans. Instead his research focused on sociolocial aspects of cannabis-using HIV patients.
Since then, Dr. Milloy studied cannabis as well as HIV/AIDS, but not together except for one study published in December 2018 which found "daily cannabis use was associated with approximately 21% greater odds of retention in [opioid agonist] treatment", and another published in 2017 that found "no statistically significant impact of daily cannabis use on the likelihood of [Antiretroviral Therapy] ART care or [viral load] VL non-detectability among ART-exposed HIV-positive" patients.
Meanwhile, other researchers continue to study how THC affects HIV disease progression, such as decreased T-cell activation, reduced inflammation, and inhibition of peripheral monocyte functions.
In early 2019, a Canadian pilot clinical trial began assessing oral cannabinoid treatment in HIV patients (1:1 CBD:THC and THC:CBD 1:9 ratio). Already in 2020, we're seeing studies that show cannabis use is associated with lower likelihood of neurocognitive impairment in people living with AIDS, as well as faster HIV DNA decay during antiretroviral therapy!