Cannabis Law Group's Medical Marijuana Legal Blog
State Department: NIDA Needn’t Be Only U.S. Marijuana Research Grower
Marijuana research has been stifled for decades by U.S. government leaders. A recent report by The Brookings Institute went in-depth to explain the ways in which federal authorities have blocked the medical community’s ability to conduct the sort of key research on the drug that is considered the “gold standard” in guiding medical practice.
Part of the problem is the fact that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has contended for years that the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs treaty allowed only a single license to grow marijuana for research purposes. That license has only ever been given to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
That could now change now that the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement has clarified: Numerous licenses for marijuana cultivation for medical and scientific research purposes could be issued without violation of the international treaty. That blows a huge hole in the DEA’s position. Continue reading