DEA Moves Toward Approving More Research Marijuana Growers

A regulatory change initiated during the Obama administration appears set to be put into practice, allowing more than one supplier of cannabis research products.

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Some 36 states now permit marijuana to be used medically, and 17 allow recreational use. Yet researchers who wish to study the drug’s health effects have been limited since 1968 to a single legal supplier of the drug, the University of Mississippi. That looks set to change soon, as the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Friday (May 14) that it has sent memorandums of agreement (MOAs) to hopeful growers “outlining the means by which the applicant and DEA will work together to facilitate the production, storage, packaging, and distribution of marijuana under the new regulations.”

“We were euphoric. This is a victory for scientific freedom. It’s finally a chance to use real-world cannabis in our own studies and supply genetically diverse cannabis to scientists across the nation,” says Sue Sisley, the president and principal investigator at the Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI), tells Science.

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Meet the Author

  • Shawna Williams

    Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate and science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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