Last week, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice announced a proposal to increase opportunities for scientific and medical marijuana research.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which would expand opportunities for marijuana growers wanting to cooperate with federally-approved research organizations, is available and open for public comment on the Federal Register beginning on Monday, March 23. The document will be open for comment for the next 60 days.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to support additional research into marijuana and its components, and we believe registering more growers will advance the scientific and medical research already being conducted,” said DEA Acting Administrator Dhillon. “DEA is making progress to register additional marijuana growers for federally authorized research, and will continue to work with other relevant federal agencies to expedite the necessary next steps.”
The proposed new rule is expected to result in an increase in registered growers and a larger variety of marijuana available for research. The DEA will then be able to evaluate each of the 37 pending applications to grow marijuana for research under the new standards.
This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is considered the most significant action taken by the DEA so far to expand the number of registered marijuana growers in the U.S. Since 2017, there has been a 58% increase in the number of active marijuana researchers registered with the DEA to study marijuana, marijuana extracts, and marijuana derivatives; there were 377 at the beginning of 2017 and as of March 2020, there are 595.
To facilitate the research, DEA has increased the annual production quota for marijuana from 472 kg in 2017 to 3,200 kg in 2020.
The Notice, which would expand opportunities for marijuana growers wanting to cooperate with federally-approved research organizations, became available and open for public comment on the Federal Register beginning on Monday, March 23. The document will be open for comment for the next 60 days.