DEA Announces Intent to License Cannabis Growing Applicants

WASHINGTON, D.C.– After years of delays, stonewalling and procrastination, the US Drug Enforcement Administration has publicly announced its intent to grant cannabis cultivation licenses to a handful of third-party applicants, according to reporting by Norml, a leading advocacy group in cannabis.

Despite the US government’s commitment to waging the catastrophic and racist ”War On Drugs” stretching back decades, only the University of Mississippi has been federally licensed to engage in the growing of cannabis for FDA-approved clinical research.

Scientists such as Dr. Sue Sisley, who are familiar with Old Miss’s product, have consistently said that it is of inferior quality and fails to accurately reflect the types of marijuana varieties commercially available in legal states. Further, the University only provides scientists with the option to access herbal cigarette formulations of the plant, not concentrates, edibles, or extracts. Strains high in the compound cannabidiol (CBD) are also not currently available from the University.

In 2016, the Agency announced that it was amending its longstanding policies to allow additional parties to grow cannabis for clinical research purposes. Since that time, however, it has taken few steps to follow through on that pledge.

On May 14, the DEA acknowledged for the first time that it has provided a MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) to three applicants to “work together to facilitate the production, storage, packaging, and distribution of marijuana” in accordance with rules adopted by the agency in December 2020.

In terms of next steps, the DEA’s website did not provide details of when they anticipate finalizing the new applicants’ grow authorizations or when it plans to take actions on the dozens of other applications that are still pending before the agency.

This reporting is taken from Norml, see their full coverage here.

Image Credit: Elroi – stock.adobe.com