When Joe Biden signed into law the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act in December of 2022, many scientists, researchers, and business-people in the cannabis industry were relieved that there would finally be legitimate research carried out to support both the positive and negative health claims of cannabis. Fast forward two years later and these same once-optimistic groups are now frustrated with the perpetuated cycle of obstacles, roadblocks, and barriers preventing any productive research from being carried out.
This past Tuesday, March 12, U.S. Congress representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Andy Harris (R-MD) wrote a letter to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), requesting answers on why this research has been stalled. Despite being on opposing sides of the desired policies of cannabis in the U.S. (Blumenauer desiring federal cannabis legalization, and Harris desiring cannabis prohibition), both representatives realize that this comprehensive research is critical prior to a federal decision being made.
“At a time when more than half of Americans reside in a place where adult-use of cannabis is legal at the state or local level, and there are four million registered medical marijuana users with many more likely to self-medicate, it is essential that we are able to fully study the impacts of cannabis use,” they said. “The American public deserves to know the effect modern marijuana has on the human body.”
Medical and scientific researchers in the field of cannabis have been making efforts to kickstart this research since this law passed in 2022 but have been halted in their tracks for unknown reasons by the DEA and the HHS. Blumenauer and Harris point out in their letter that there are currently over 150 pending applications for research studies regarding cannabis. These study applications must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a direct subsidiary of the HHS. These 150 pending study applications do not include the researcher groups that are excluded due to the DEA's antiquated requirements that date back to the original Controlled Substances Act of the 1970's.
Another major concern addressed by the letter is that the HHS was scheduled to file a report with Congress by December 2, 2023 on the medical uses of Cannabis and its barriers of research. This report is over 3 months late and researchers are stuck waiting on approval to conduct their studies.
Additional questions asked by the representatives' letter follow;
- What is the standard timeline for the FDA to issue a decision to approve or deny cannabis-related research applications? How does this timeline compare to non-cannabis related research?
- What is the confirmed total of pending research licensing applications before the DEA? What is the average timeline for DEA to approve or deny license applications related to cannabis?
- What caused the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to miss the December 2, 2023 deadline to report to Congress on potential impacts of cannabis and barriers to research?
- What is HHS’ target deadline to transmit this report to Congress?
- What specific steps are HHS and the DEA taking to ensure that congressional intent to streamline research registration and expand research on cannabis is reflected in updated processes for research application processing and approvals?
Biden's Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act allowed lawmakers and researchers to believe progress was finally going to be made in better understanding one of the most widely used drugs in the United States. Unfortunately, research has been staunched as it has been since cannabis was made a Schedule I drug in the Controlled Substance Act of 1971. 50 years later, U.S. government and lawmakers continue to seemingly suppress valuable data that could be easily collected by highly qualified and capable drug and health researchers. Whether the DEA and HHS are simply lazily procrastinating on this issue or instead rather, believe a better understanding of cannabis' health effects will disrupt the cash-cow pharmaceutical industry, this agenda has been put-off for too long.
With the cannabis industry continuing to grow and more states adopting state-level legalization of medical and recreational cannabis, this issue can not remain ignored and unresearched any longer. Hopefully, this collective effort of representatives on both sides of cannabis politics will force the U.S. government's hand to finally allow this critical research to take place.
See Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Andy Harris (R-MD) full letter here.