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The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced on Friday that it will be taking significant steps to expand marijuana research.

The agency is proposing a rule change that would enable it to approve additional cannabis growers and diversify the types of marijuana available to be used in studies. The move comes more than three years after the agency initially said it was accepting applications for additional marijuana manufacturers.

DEA stressed throughout the new notice that it will have sole ownership over any marijuana that’s cultivated for research purposes. That includes any cannabis that’s stored at cultivation facilities. This appears to be a fundamental change in policy. As it stands, a single facility in Mississippi is authorized to grow cannabis through a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and DEA does not maintain ownership over its products.

“The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to support additional research into marijuana and its components, and we believe registering more growers will advance the scientific and medical research already being conducted,” Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon said in a press release. “DEA is making progress to register additional marijuana growers for federally authorized research, and will continue to work with other relevant federal agencies to expedite the necessary next steps.”

A 60-day public comment period will be open for individuals to provide feedback on the proposal, which will be formally published in the Federal Register on Monday.

After DEA said in 2016 that it would allow more cannabis cultivators, 37 institutions submitted applications. Many applicants grew frustrated with inaction on their proposals, and one filed a lawsuit alleging that the agency was deliberately avoiding making good on its pledge. The plaintiff won a procedural victory in that case, with the court mandating that DEA take action.

However, because the agency did provide an update on the status of its process, the suit was dismissed last year. DEA argued that the high volume of applicants to manufacture cannabis, as well as what it saw as complications arising from international drug treaties to which the U.S. is a party, meant that it would have to develop new regulations to approve them.

Lawmakers have repeatedly pressured the agency to expedite the process of allowing more cannabis to be grown for studies. Last year, thirty bipartisan members of the House and Senate sent a letter to the Justice Department, urging officials to approve additional applications.

Attorney General William Barr has said he favors expanding research opportunities and testified at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last year that it’s something he’s “been pushing very hard over the last few weeks.” He also said at that meeting that he’d prefer some level of federal regulations over cannabis as opposed to maintaining the status quo of prohibition.

His interim predecessor, Matthew Whitaker, had previously told Congress that international treaty obligations were complicating efforts to authorize more marijuana manufacturers—a point that’s was disputed by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement in a 2016 letter to senator.

President Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had reportedly interfered in the process during his time in office. The anti-cannabis official also rescinded Obama era guidance laying out enforcement guidances on marijuana for federal prosecutors.

“If this proposed rule is promulgated, the following key changes are anticipated: more persons will be authorized to grow marihuana, DEA will purchase and take title to the crops of marihuana, and DEA will, with respect to marihuana, have the exclusive right of importing, exporting, wholesale trading, and maintaining stocks,” the notice states. “These changes would mean that authorized purchasers of bulk marihuana to be used for research, product development, and other purposes permitted by the CSA may only purchase from DEA, except that DEA’s exclusive rights would not extend to medicinal cannabis or cannabis preparations.”

DEA said this notice, which also lays out criteria for eligible cultivation applicants, “is the latest and most significant action taken to expand the number of registered marijuana growers in the United States and underscores the federal government’s support for scientific and medical research with marijuana and its chemical constituents.”

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

The post DEA Unveils New Rule To Finally Allow More Marijuana Growers For Research appeared first on Marijuana Moment.

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