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Tag: marijuana scheduling

  • DEA Announces Plans To Expand Scientific Research For Marijuana

    DEA Announces Plans To Expand Scientific Research For Marijuana

    The agency also revealed plans to propose new regulations to evaluate these applications before reviewing and making possible approvals.

    Clinical studies involving marijuana moved a substantial step forward with an announcement by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to “facilitate and expand” applications for research into medical and scientific applications of cannabis.

    The agency intends to expand its review of applications from qualified growers who seek to cultivate marijuana for research. In doing so, the DEA noted that it will “increase the variety of marijuana available for these purposes.”

    However, the agency also stated that it plans to propose new regulations to evaluate these applications before reviewing and making possible approvals. For researchers whose work has been hampered by marijuana’s status as a federally illegal Schedule I drug, the news has prompted a response tempered with cautious optimism, given the DEA’s slow response to change on this topic in the past.

    A Monopoly on Marijuana for Research

    For the past half-century, a single facility at the University of Mississippi was legally approved by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to grow marijuana for scientific and medical research.

    As Think Progress noted, that scenario was a major roadblock to researchers; the facility produced only a handful of cannabis varieties and what was described as “low-grade” flower. 

    In 2016, the DEA announced its plans to expand research facilities, prompting numerous scientific and medical entities to apply for research grow licenses. However, as Think Progress noted, nothing came of the announcement.

    According to the DEA announcement, the number of applicants registered to conduct research has increased by 40% (from 384 in 2017 to 542 in 2019), while product quoted for federally approved research projects has doubled. The announcement of expanded review for these applications is a step in the right direction, according to researchers who have been waiting for years for approval—albeit a step that they suggest should be taken with a grain of salt.

    Proceed With Caution

    “DEA/DOJ can slow-roll this for many years to come, leaving progress of medical cannabis research in limbo indefinitely,” wrote Dr. Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute in a statement.

    Sisley, who conducted a federally approved study on cannabis as treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans, applied for a grow grant in 2016 based on the “sub-par” cannabis provided by the NIDA-approved facility. When she received no response for three years, she filed suit against the DEA. The agency’s announcement was delivered two days before a major deadline imposed by the suit.

    “At least [the] door is now theoretically kicked open,” Dr. Sisley wrote. “Now we just need to keep the DEA’s feet to the fire.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • DEA May Be Coming Around On Expanding Marijuana Research

    DEA May Be Coming Around On Expanding Marijuana Research

    The DEA will finally review potential growers of marijuana used in research, which is currently very limited in quantity and quality.

    After years of delaying progress that would expand the supply of marijuana for research, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Monday that it will move forward with reviewing potential marijuana growers. 

    The agency issued a regulatory filing and held a press conference on Monday. 

    “I am pleased that DEA is moving forward with its review of applications for those who seek to grow marijuana legally to support research,” said Attorney General William Barr in a statement. 

    One Grow Facility

    Right now, scientists who want to study cannabis must use marijuana grown by one University of Mississippi facility, the only grower that has a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to legally grow cannabis. This limits the amount of marijuana research that can be done, as well as the quality of the product being studied.

    In 2016, the DEA announced that it would accept applications from other organizations seeking to grow cannabis for research, but it never approved any permits. 

    That prompted one scientist, Dr. Sue Sisley, director of Scottsdale Research Institute, to sue the agency, alleging that the current arrangement is a monopoly on marijuana growth. “The bottom line is scientists need access to options,” Sisley told NPR.

    Sisley’s lawsuit likely prompted the DEA’s action on Monday, Think Progress reported. 

    Shane Pennington, who is on Sisley’s legal team, said that although the announcement may have seemed dry, it was monumental. “Until today, no one could do anything. We were handcuffed, in limbo,” he said. “Now they’ve done something. It’s a huge, huge deal.”

    Still, he was a bit apprehensive, saying, “I have high hopes, but I’ll believe it when I see it.” 

    Matt Zorn, a lawyer for the Scottsdale Research Institute, said that he is “cautiously optimistic” following Monday’s announcement. “It’s a positive first step because we were stuck in a kind of administrative limbo,” he said. 

    Catch-22

    Zorn explained how marijuana’s Schedule I status creates a catch-22. 

    “On the one hand, you can’t do the research with good, high-quality cannabis because it’s a Schedule I drug. On the other, it’s a Schedule I because nobody can really do the research,” he said.

    Sisley pointed out that getting approval to grow cannabis for research is just the first step. Then, scientists will need to grow marijuana that is comparable to the high-quality pot that people obtain from dispensaries. 

    “We haven’t really won anything until scientists are finally utilizing real-world cannabis flower in their clinical trials,” she said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • NIDA Director Nora Volkow Talks Marijuana Research, Kratom

    NIDA Director Nora Volkow Talks Marijuana Research, Kratom

    Volkow testified before Congress about the difficulties of researching Schedule I drugs like marijuana.  

    Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), said during congressional testimony this week that designating a drug with Schedule I status can inhibit much-needed research. 

    “Indeed, the moment that a drug gets a Schedule I, which is done in order to protect the public so that they don’t get exposed to it, it makes research much harder,” Nora Volkow said, according to Marijuana Moment. “This is because [researchers] actually have to through a registration process that is actually lengthy and cumbersome.”

    Schedule I status is reserved for drugs that have no accepted medical use and are highly addictive. It includes heroin, but also marijuana. Other dangerous drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine, are placed in the less restrictive Schedule 2 status.

    Many people would like to see marijuana reclassified, or unclassified all together. 

    Although marijuana is accepted for medical use in the majority of the country, it is “very difficult” for researchers to study the drug, because of its Schedule I status. Even in states where cannabis is legal for medical or recreational purposes, researchers and institutions can risk losing their federal funding if they study it without going through the federal process.

    This leaves many questions about the safety of products from marijuana to CBD, Volkow said. 

    The federal research process for marijuana includes lengthy delays because the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) limits the number of permits allowed for studying marijuana, and the amount of cannabis that can be grown for research purposes. Despite promising to issue more permits, the DEA has not yet significantly increased the ability of researchers to study marijuana. 

    Volkow also spoke about whether the herb kratom should receive Schedule I status. She said that doing so would “make it very difficult for our researchers to get ahold of the pharmacological compound itself.”

    Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) suggested that the benefits of scheduling kratom (like restricting public use) might be outweighed by the negative consequence of limiting research.

    “There seems to be—all the problems we’re trying to untangle right now around cannabis, marijuana specifically, because of Schedule I, I’d hate to see us put another drug there and then have to try to work backwards,” he said. “If we’re not there already, it allows you to continue to do the research.”

    NIDA, the DEA and the FDA are all working on a process to streamline drug research, looking for a “path that will allow researchers to work with Schedule I drugs in a safe way, but without actually expediting that process,” according to Volkow.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • World Health Organization To UN: Reclassify Cannabis

    World Health Organization To UN: Reclassify Cannabis

    WHO is calling for the classification to be updated to reflect the medical uses of marijuana.

    The World Health Organization is calling on the United Nations to change the classification of cannabis to acknowledge that the drug does have some medicinal purposes. 

    According to Futurism, cannabis is currently considered a Schedule IV drug by the UN. This designation is the most tightly controlled, and reserved for drugs that show “particularly dangerous properties.” It was set by an international drug treaty passed in 1961. 

    However, according to information published in the journal BMJ, the World Health Organization is calling for the classification to be updated to reflect the medical uses of marijuana. 

    “The World Health Organization has proposed rescheduling cannabis within international law to take account of the growing evidence for medical applications of the drug, reversing its position held for the past 60 years that cannabis should not be used in legitimate medical practice,” the report authors wrote. 

    According to the report, The WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence started reconsidering marijuana’s classification last year. The committee released a report with its findings and recommendations. 

    “The Committee concluded that the inclusion of cannabis and cannabis resin in Schedule IV is not consistent with the criteria for a drug to be placed in Schedule IV,” the report reads. 

    It goes on to recommend that marijuana and its compounds be reclassified as Schedule I or II drugs, which are less tightly controlled. The recommendations could be voted on by the United Nations member countries as soon as March, which would change the way that marijuana is handled under international law.

    However, it would have no bearing on how cannabis is scheduled federally in the United States, which uses an entirely different system of classification.

    Still, marijuana advocates, including a US Air Force veteran Michael Krawitz, said that the reclassification is long overdue. 

    “The placement of cannabis in the 1961 treaty, in the absence of scientific evidence, was a terrible injustice,” he told Forbes. “Today the World Health Organization has gone a long way towards setting the record straight. It is time for us all to support the World Health Organization’s recommendations and ensure politics don’t trump science.”

    Kenzi Riboulet Zemouli, the head of research at Paris-based non-profit For Alternative Approaches to Addiction Think & Do Tank, told Leafly that the measure is “a beginning of a new evidence and health-oriented cycle for international Cannabis policy.”

    “This is the best outcome that WHO could possibly have come up with,” Riboulet Zemouli said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Marijuana Should Be Rescheduled, World Health Organization Says

    Marijuana Should Be Rescheduled, World Health Organization Says

    The UN authority is joining those who are demanding we take another look at marijuana’s classification.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) says that marijuana has been considered a Schedule IV drug, the Single Convention’s most restrictive category, for far too long. They believe marijuana’s current scheduling goes against science, but are making it clear they are stopping short of allowing legalization.

    The international scheduling of drugs was outlined in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, which categorized drugs as most harmful and restricted for medical use in Schedule I to the more relaxed Schedule III.

    Their pattern is consistent with the United States’ scheduling order, up until Schedule IV. Breaking the pattern, the Single Convention defines Schedule IV drugs as an especially dangerous subset of Schedule I drugs requiring special attention and restrictions.

    Currently, marijuana is dual-categorized as Schedule I federally and a Schedule IV drug internationally, which places it on the same level as synthetic opioids.

    The WHO suggests that the marijuana plant and cannabis resins be taken off of Schedule IV, downgrading it to Schedule I internationally. They also want to explicitly state that CBD preparations with a THC content of lower than 0.2% will be considered as “not under international control” in any way.

    They also suggest that cannabis extracts, tinctures, and pharmaceutical THC compounds be taken from Schedule I down to Schedule III.

    Despite all the rescheduling, the WHO is not recommending that any country legalize marijuana, and in fact would consider such a move a violation of some stricter international treaties. However, the move is an admission that most governments have gotten marijuana wrong.

    “The placement of cannabis in the 1961 treaty, in the absence of scientific evidence, was a terrible injustice,” said legalization advocate Michael Krawitz. “Today the World Health Organization has gone a long way towards setting the record straight. It is time for us all to support the World Health Organization’s recommendations and ensure politics don’t trump science.”

    Despite not explicitly advocating for legalization, this may tip the scales in favor of countries that no longer want to enforce marijuana prohibition. Canada and Uruguay, which have decided to legalize marijuana even before the WHO’s announcement, are expected to support the move. More restrictive countries like China and Russia are expected to disapprove.

    The United States’ federal stance remains to be seen. Despite marijuana being legal in some form in more than half of the U.S., some say President Trump’s Attorney General nominee might go either way.

    View the original article at thefix.com