Editorial on the Research Topic Therapeutic potential of the cannabinoid CB2 receptorThe cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2R) has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for treating various pathologies. Under normal conditions, CB2R is primarily expressed in the immune system, but there is emerging evidence that various states of disease can lead to robust induction of this receptor. This suggests that CB2R is a viable therapeutic target and for this reason, molecules interacting with CB2R have been tested as potential treatments in a wide array of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular and gastrointestinal/inflammatory bowel disease; liver, kidney, lung, neuro-degenerative and psychiatric disorders; reproductive system and skin pathologies; inflammation; pain; cancer; and osteoporosis (Whiting et al., 2022). Through the years, researchers have designed and synthesized novel ligands targeting CB2R with a preference to be highly selective over the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R) to avoid undesirable CB1dependent psychotropic effects. However, the clinical results using these CB2R ligands have been largely ineffective (Morales et al., 2016;An et al., 2020).Greater knowledge of ligand-target binding kinetics, CB2R biased signaling and allosterism, and additional structures of antagonist-and agonist bound CB2R will likely enable more selective drug design (Soethoudt et al., 2017). This will bring new hope for the therapeutic potential of CB2R and a better understanding of the endocannabinoid system (ECS).This Research Topic provides more insight into our current understanding of the CB2R field and its therapeutic potential and highlights new findings.Four comprehensive reviews cover diverse aspects of the therapeutic potential of CB2R. Hashiesh et al. provide a full overview of the pharmacological properties, molecular