Drug Enforcement Administration
August 26, 2019
Contact: National Media Affairs Office
Phone Number: (202) 307-7977
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DEA announces steps necessary to improve access to marijuana research
WASHINGTON – The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that it is moving forward to facilitate and expand scientific and medical research for marijuana in the United States. The DEA is providing notice of pending applications from entities applying to be registered to manufacture marijuana for researchers. DEA anticipates that registering additional qualified marijuana growers will increase the variety of marijuana available for these purposes.
www.dea.gov/...
Bill Barr has announced that the program to grow cannabis for medical research will be expanded. In the past, only the University of Mississippi was allowed to grow medical cannabis, making the supply for researchers basically non-existent. I do not believe the actual timing of this program has been announced.The decision comes just two days before a key deadline in a lawsuit against the agency brought by cannabis researcher Dr. Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute after the DEA dragged its heels for three years on her application. I assume the DEA felt their position was a loser and did not want to set the precedent in court.
Some people feel that this will force the Feds to remove cannabis as a Schedule I drug. This is because Schedule I drugs are defined, in part, as drugs with no accepted medical use. So I assume saying that there will be medical research means that there is a presumption of medical use. But drug hysteria runs deep and up to this point, very few politicians want to be remembered as the one to end prohibition. If an actual Federal program is implemented, it seems to render Schedule I status moot in any event.
I am sorry that this little bit of drug policy liberalization came from a Republican administration. Availability of cannabis is ubiquitous in my part of the country, and much easier to buy than alcohol. Except for the optics of looking like responsible parents, this should have been done by the Obama administration and would have been a nice populist move as it is overwhelmingly supported by the Democratic base. Oh well, I guess mom and dad know best.