Pubdate: Fri, 12 Aug 2016
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Evan Halper

DEA ENDS MARIJUANA MONOPOLY

Growers will be able to apply for licenses, expanding potential for 
medical research.

WASHINGTON - The federal government is ending its decades-old 
monopoly on marijuana production for medical research as the Drug 
Enforcement Administration announced Thursday it was bowing to changing times.

The agency said it would begin allowing researchers and drug 
companies to use pot grown in places other than its well-secured 
facility at the University of Mississippi.

But the agency did not make the bigger plunge toward marijuana 
legalization that many lawmakers have been advocating. It passed on a 
proposal to remove cannabis from the federal government's most 
dangerous category of narcotics. The drug continues to be classified 
as more dangerous than cocaine.

Even so, the agency's shift on pot used for research purposes will 
have wide-reaching implications. It is aimed at increasing the amount 
and variety of marijuana available to scientists seeking to develop 
particular strains of the drug to treat ailments.

Medical researchers have long complained federal policy on marijuana 
inhibits scientific breakthroughs, leaving patients to rely on 
anecdotal evidence of the drug's curative qualities and undermining 
efforts to target medical growing operations to most effectively treat illness.

For nearly 50 years, the University of Mississippi has had the sole 
contract for producing medical pot. Any scientist seeking to research 
the drug for medical purposes had to obtain a special license through 
several federal agencies.

"The demand for research-grade marijuana was relatively limited," the 
agency wrote in a document posted online Thursday that outlines its 
new policy, "and the grower was able to meet such limited demand."

But researchers said the lack of demand was the result of the agency 
actively working to discourage any studies that would legitimize 
marijuana. The DEA acknowledged Thursday that recent studies suggest 
some of the cannabinoids in marijuana may help treat seizures and 
other neurological disorders. There are more than 100 cannabinoids in 
the marijuana plant, and scientists are seeking to isolate the ones 
that may be most effective.

The "DEA has concluded the best way to satisfy the current researcher 
demand for a variety of strains of marijuana and cannabinoid extracts 
is to increase the number of federally authorized marijuana growers," 
the agency wrote.

The move is notable for a law enforcement agency that has long seemed 
out of step with even President Obama, who has said he believes 
marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol. The Justice Department has 
allowed states to move aggressively forward with legalization for 
both medical and recreational use, even as the DEA continues to 
classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic with no accepted medical use.

The pressure on the agency to further soften its position is likely 
to mount in November, as a fresh round of voting begins in states 
weighing legalization for recreational use. Among them is California, 
the biggest state in the country, and one that polls suggest is 
poised to approve full legalization.

Advocates in California and elsewhere are hopeful that the federal 
prohibition on marijuana will start to crumble once large states 
begin permitting the sale of pot to any adult who wants to buy it. 
They say the disconnect between state and federal policy will become 
untenable when it begins to affect more than the few states that 
currently have no ban on the drug.

Already, legal marijuana is a multibillion-dollar industry. It is 
projected to grow exponentially, and as it has, the conflicting state 
and federal laws governing its sale have created all manner of 
regulatory headaches.

"I welcome the decision to lessen barriers to medical marijuana 
research," said a statement from Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), one 
of the most vocal legalization proponents in Congress. "It's 
outrageous that federal policy has blocked science for so long."

But like other marijuana advocates, he expressed bewilderment that 
the DEA refused to move marijuana off Schedule 1. He called it 
"further evidence that the DEA doesn't get it. Keeping marijuana at 
Schedule 1 continues an outdated, failed approach - leaving patients 
and marijuana businesses trapped between state and federal laws."

The agency on Thursday released a 186-page rebuttal to such 
arguments, in which it again laid out its rationale for finding that 
the drug is dangerous and has no accepted medical use. Key among the 
agency's concerns is that there have been inadequate controlled 
scientific studies. That could change with its new policy increasing 
the availability of research-grade marijuana.

The DEA will invite growers other than the University of Mississippi 
to apply for licenses, but warns the number of such licenses granted 
will be limited and the rules for qualifying will be strict. It 
implied that big growers who have been selling pot legally in the 
states may be boxed out of the market, as the DEA will favor 
manufacturers that have followed its rules and have a proven track record.

Other potential growers might include big agricultural and 
pharmaceutical companies that have been pondering entering the pot 
market but have sat on the sidelines, waiting for the DEA to loosen 
its rules. The DEA says the new policy is designed to enable 
companies seeking to market particular strains of marijuana as 
prescription drugs to start developing products.

"Under the new approach, should the state of scientific knowledge 
advance in the future such that a marijuana-derived drug is shown to 
be safe and effective for medical use, pharmaceutical firms will have 
a legal means of producing such drugs in the United States - 
independent of the [federal government] contracting process," the agency wrote.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom