DEA ends its monopoly on marijuana growing for medical research

[mahatmakanejeeves]

DEA ends its monopoly on marijuana growing for medical research

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Marijuana plants fill a grow room in the University of Mississippi research lab, the only such site under contract with the federal government. (Brandon Dill / For The Los Angeles Times)

By Evan Halper
[e-mail]
http://twitter.com/evanhalper

August 11, 2016, 9:50 AM | Reporting from Washington

The federal government is ending its decades-old monopoly on marijuana production for medical research as the Drug Enforcement Agency 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.
....

Related: Hold that blueberry pie; the Oregon state fair is now judging best 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 working with controlled substances.

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.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. that's a fucking consolation prize to attempt to cover their completely bullshit decision.

There is no sane rationale via which they can justify claiming marijuana "has no safety level". Bullshit; in 1988 DEA judge Francis Young called cannabis the "safest therapeutically active substance known to man"- that's safer than aspirin, for example.

Fortunately, there are multiple ways via which marijuana can be rescheduled (or, more preferably, removed entirely) from the CSA.

Congress can do it. The DEA can do it, or the executive branch can do it.

[misterhighwasted]

2. Other potential growers might include big agricultural and pharmaceutical companies

"Other potential growers might include big agricultural and pharmaceutical companies that have been pondering entering the pot market .."

Need we say more.

[RKP5637]

3. As long as big-pharma can make big $$$$$'s off pot, then it will be fine with

the DEA.

[silverweb]

4. Yup.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Big Pharma will get to make prescription drugs from it, but regular people won't be allowed to grow or use the actual plant.

Profits over people. Again.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. facts on the ground, however, say otherwise.

Legalization isn't going away.

[Thinkingabout]

5. I am more interested in the value of helping those in need rather than complaining

About the politics.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. The DEA isn't helping anyone by putting pot smokers in prison.

Period, full stop, end of story.

[Thinkingabout]

8. As I stated I am more interested in the benefits than the politics.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. I'm not sure what that statement means.

It's a fools errand to expect the DEA to voluntarily vote to ramp down the decades of hyperbole on the substance which comprises the majority of the fuel for their gravy train, of course. That will need to come from congress or executive leadership, and believe me, the people will lead so eventually the leaders will follow.

But if its benefits you are interested in, the benefits of legalization aren't hypothetical, they're real and in action as we speak.

http://www.oregonlive.com/marijuana/index.ssf/2016/05/oregon_collected_105_million_i.html

[awoke_in_2003]

10. The benefits

will be for the pharma companies- they will charge more for their patented formula.

[Thinkingabout]

11. Really, do you contend there are not any medical benefits in marijuana?

I disagree if this is your position.

[awoke_in_2003]

12. Not at all

what I am objecting to is that the big pharma companies can now grow and experiment, and once they do they will patent something and it will be legal (at big costs, no doubts), but you're average Joe is not allowed to grow any for his/her own personal use. They will make it legal for filthy rich companies that will hold us hostage to their pills, when growing our own should be legal.

[Thinkingabout]

14. They probably will charge lots, but the benefits are important to those in need.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. Oh, and I really do want it legal...

my wife has chronic pain, and can't do anything without opioids. I would give a testicle for it to be legal so she could at least give it a try and get rid of the pills.