In a turn of events this week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) revealed that it is “moving forward to facilitate and expand scientific and medical research for marijuana in the United States.” To do this, the agency announced it will be accepting and reviewing applications from marijuana growers who would like their products to be used for scientific and medical research. This builds on a three-year-old commitment to end the 50-year monopoly held by the University of Mississippi, the country’s only approved grower per a contract by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). A monopoly that has resulted in sub-par cannabis for testing, and thus the U.S. falling years behind the scientific work of other countries including China and Israel.
Nevertheless, many fear the announcement may be too good to be true for the time being given the years of delays and vague language used in the Federal Register notice. According to documents the agency wants to craft and roll out new rules for evaluating and overseeing new growers. Which could possibly signal a means of delaying real action.
The announcement did however get a full press release and quotes from Attorney General William P. Barr who said, “I am pleased that DEA is moving forward with its review of applications for those who seek to grow marijuana legally to support research.” He went on to include buy-in from other agencies saying, “The Department of Justice will continue to work with our colleagues at the Department of Health and Human Services and across the Administration to improve research opportunities wherever we can.”
This is a significant change from his predecessor Jeff Sessions’ position on the subject. It was well documented in 2017 that then Attorney General Sessions effectively blocked the DEA from pursuing at least 25 proposals (reportedly 33 applications have been filed since 2016) for growing marijuana for the purposes of medical and scientific research.
Further, according to the Department of Justice the number of researchers approved to conduct studies with marijuana grow from 384 in 2017 to 542 in 2019 (an increase of more than 40%) – suggesting that the DEA and the University of Mississippi are having to significantly increase the supply of marijuana used in research.
But supply and demand is not the only catalyst for movement on the part of the DEA. In fact, the announcement came just two days before the DEA had to file a response (court ordered) to a lawsuit brought by a research institute carrying out efforts to better understand cannabis for treating post-traumatic stress (PTSD) in combat veterans. The Scottsdale Research Institute sued the DEA earlier in 2019 after their application for cultivating research-grade cannabis went ignored – along with all the other applications – for years.
In the coming days there is expected to be a public response from other heads of federal agencies, as well updates on the Scottsdale Research Institute’s lawsuit.
