Lawmakers want the DEA to authorize research using dispensary marijuana

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The move could help ensure better products make it to market

It seems to be that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is doing everything in its hands to avoid any new cannabis suppliers to work officially. Only one new application has been approved since the first one was received three years ago. Now a coalition has formed in the House and Senate and the bipartisan alliance sent a letter to the Justice Department last Friday, requesting a policy change to the current situation. The intention is to speed up the access that researchers have to cannabis by allowing them to obtain the product from state-legal dispensaries to promote better studies.

Representative Harley Rouda and Senator Brian Schatz are the leaders for this cause and, in the letter, they cite all the feedback received from federal agencies regarding how the current restriction the DEA as on cannabis has been complicating any studies. The main problem presented is that there is only one manufacturer so far that can provide research-grade marijuana. The DEA said not too long ago that they were in the process of adding more manufacturers; however, it isn’t moving quickly enough.

More recently, the DEA has said that, in order to approve these proposals, it needs to come out with some alternatives rules in order to give the green light to those requests. The current ban lies in the barrier the investigators have to obtain the product, “At the same time, the status quo does not address a barrier to research raised by both [the National Institutes of Health] and [the Food and Drug Administration],” said the letter. “Both agencies recommended that researchers should be able to obtain cannabis from state-legal sources.”

The DEA is its own worst enemy in this case, consistently trying to find new excuses to avoid doing its job. That, it will learn, is going to have detrimental consequences in the long run.