DEA Pivots Away from Opioid Production
In Response to Opioid Epidemic, DEA Pushes to Grow More Pot for Research
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has historically been far from a proponent of marijuana. They’ve spent decades hunting down growers and working to incarcerate people involved in cannabis production, and that’s why it’s extra surprising that this particular government agency seems to be somewhat coming to terms with its priorities for the future.
Drug Overdoses at an All-Time High
In a country where drug overdoses have become the leading cause of death for Americans under 50—a reported 2/3 of those deaths being the result of opioids—it’s undoubtedly time for an active stand to encourage research of alternative, less harmful solutions to the widespread problem of chronic pain that often leads to these overdoses.
Chronic Pain Prevalent in Americans
More than 30% of Americans are living with some form of chronic or acute pain, a figure that jumps up to 40% among older individuals. The effectiveness of opioids for chronic pain is still undetermined, with many arguing that it’s an insufficient solution with risks that run too high given the level of treatment that these medications provide. That’s at least partly why 30 states have now legalized some form of medical marijuana: the pursuit of alternative treatment courses.
DEA Attempts to Increase Marijuana Research
The DEA, for all of its ills, has at least started to recognize these things. The organization has decided to increase the amount of marijuana that can be grown for research purposes, up to 5,400 pounds from the current nationwide limit of 1,000 pounds, Forbes reports.
If this sounds like a shockingly low amount of pot to be growing for the research sector of a $30 billion medical marijuana industry, that’s because it is. At this point, the DEA has still restricted research pot growing to the one facility approved by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) licensing program to do so, the same place it’s been grown since 1968: a farm at the University of Mississippi. Scientists, Forbes says, have long complained that “it is sometimes hard to get approvals to obtain marijuana from the facility and that its product is often of low quality.”
In response to this, the DEA announced at the tail end of the Obama administration that it would be “adopting a new policy that is designed to increase the number of entities registered … to grow (manufacture) marijuana to supply legitimate researchers in the United States. … [The DEA] fully supports expanding research into the potential medical utility of marijuana and its chemical constituents.”
Predetermined Obstacles
The same memo readily claims that “no drug product made from marijuana has yet been shown to be safe and effective in … clinical trials,” ignoring the fact that most clinical trials approved of marijuana before roughly two years ago were designed to focus on the harms of the substance and not its potential therapeutic functions.
Regardless of their good intentions, the DEA has been blocked by Attorney General Jeff Sessions from approving any of the more than two dozen applications for new growers outside of the University of Mississippi. This means that researchers have been stuck with the low-THC schwag grown by the University, which offers little accurate insight into the high-THC levels that we have proliferating the medical market today.
Bipartisan Resistance
A bipartisan appeal was made to Sessions back in July with regards to the applications. The letter, signed by eight Democrat and Republican senators, asked about the status of the applications, when they’ll be ready and if there are any legal barriers to the matter that need to be addressed. This inquiry follows one in April sent by senators Orrin Hatch and Kamala Harris on the same subject matter, which apparently was never responded to.
And so, once again, the DOJ and the DEA have reached a standstill while people who are looking to the medical marijuana sector for relief lie in wait. While Sessions refuses to respond and the DEA plows forwards with the search for increased research resources the whole affair remains frustratingly in limbo. It’s yet another saga in the stalemate of pot research, with little resolution in sight as ever.