In an interesting turn of events, The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has issued a ruling which will greatly increase the amount of marijuana that can be grown legally for research purposes. In the same report, the DEA announced that they will be attempting to reduce the production of problematic opioid pharmaceuticals.
The amount of marijuana that can be grown previously had been roughly 1,000 pounds, but will be increasing to 5,400 pounds in 2019. According to the filing, these numbers are quotas that “reflects the total amount of controlled substances necessary to meet the country’s medical, scientific, research, industrial, and export needs for the year and for the establishment and maintenance of reserve stocks,” DEA said.
Unfortunately, there are still many obstacles that need to be traversed before the scientific community actually has open access to these resources.
There is only one farm in the whole United States that is authorized to produce cannabis for research purposes, and there are complaints from a large number of scientists that it is often difficult to receive samples from them.
The farm is located at the University of Mississippi and has been operating by 1968. Two dozen other facilities have reportedly filed proposals to become licensed manufacturers, but they have all been blocked by Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department.
NORML Political Director Justin Strekal pointed out that there is currently a monopoly on scientific research of cannabis in the US.
“While the drastic increase in requested production of marijuana by the DEA is a positive sign, significant barriers still exist including but not limited to the NIDA monopoly on cultivation and undue hurdles for researchers to qualify for a permit. It’s time that Congress look at the 28,000 plus peer-reviewed studies currently hosted on the National Institute of Health’s online database and reform federal law by removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act altogether,” Strekal said.
While the DEA intends to increase supply for research purposes, marijuana is still federally listed as a schedule 1 drug, which means there is a large amount of ‘red tape’ preventing researchers from running clinical trials and conducting studies to evaluate the benefits and risks of cannabis.
In a press release, DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon seemed to recognize that cannabis could be a possible solution to the growing opiate overdose crisis.
“We’ve lost too many lives to the opioid epidemic and families and communities suffer tragic consequences every day. This significant drop in prescriptions by doctors and DEA’s production quota adjustment will continue to reduce the number of drugs available for illicit diversion and abuse while ensuring that patients will continue to have access to proper medicine,” Dhillon said.
In a recently published research study in a peer-reviewed journal, Melvin D. Livingston, Tracey E. Barnett, Chris Delcher, and Alexander C. Wagenaar, it was shown that rates of opiate deaths dropped significantly in states that where cannabis was legalized. “Colorado’s legalization of recreational cannabis sales and use resulted in a 0.7 deaths per month…reduction in opioid-related deaths. This reduction represents a reversal of the upward trend in opioid-related deaths in Colorado,” the study reads.
With this news, some legalization advocates are hopefully predicting that this could signal a coming change in federal policy towards marijuana.
not to mention the fact that the government weed is dirty swag. In a public I told my state legislators that in light of the facts that cannabis legalization reduces traffic fatalities and significantly reduces opiate use and dependence and deaths that they were sociopaths for dragging their feet on legalization and trying to subvert the will of the people.
The signals of positive change on legalization is the fact that Republicans in congress are currently pushing separate bills to legalize hemp and to remove all federal cannabis prohibitions and that the president has pledged to sign them.
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And just were talking about this yesterday on Air.
Thanks for helping the cause and calling your officials!
That was actually my testimony in a legislative hearing. I also called out the drug alcohol and gambling industries for their opposition to legalization. Calling is good too, people should call all their representatives in congress and urge them to support the pending legislation.
Are you interested in helping with the cannabis community news? We are looking forward to seeing more people taking action and throwing votes for such actions. We have the radio show every day 4 to 6 pm Pacific time. Mondays we are on steemspeak.
Definitely working on focalizing activism and supporting that!
Following and voted! Hope you have the discord app.
Let's talk more!
I'm intrigued by the idea of being on a radio show but I also value my privacy.
It crazy changes we are seeing. Things are progressing so fast. Yet everyone I talk to says Texas, will be the last state to go legal. I disagree, we have too many California Refugees moving here. I bet the local prosecutors are having a harder time getting convictions for pot now a days. (at least in the major cities)
Hopefully the Democrats in congress fail to block the current republican led efforts to do away with the federal prohibitions, then they will probably legalize it in Austin anyhow.
@johnvibes That lets you know they know how to deal with addiction. First step, take away whatever the addiction is and replace it with something else. Take away the drugs, kool "we'll give you weed, but only if we can control it all!" I love it! lol.. Kool post. This is very interesting! Also, when you get a chance, check out my page. You might see something you like. Peace!
Would love for you to come on the show. And news is getting out.
The key word is export... How can the government send Cannabis through the state lines and use the postal system to send it?....
Thanks and covered this in our steemspeak room show yesterday on the @kind.network.