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- The DEA quietly changed a rule that will now allow marijuana researchers to grow their own weed
- Studies could previously only legally be conducted using infamously awful bud grown at the University of Mississippi
- Read more marijuana news here
A couple of months ago, I spoke with Matt Stang, the former owner of High Times who played an instrumental role in the normalization of marijuana before starting a new venture in the hopes he’ll also be able to help bring psychedelics into the mainstream.
During our conversation, the co-founder of DELIC provided some fascinating insight into the red tape researchers in the United States are forced to deal with when it comes to unlocking the potential of illicit drugs. That included the revelation that it’s actually easier for scientists to get their hands on substances like psilocybin, meth, and cocaine compared to marijuana thanks to the DEA’s impressively convoluted scheduling system.
As things currently stand, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, which is defined as one with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” As a result, anyone who wanted to look into the now incredibly well-documented therapeutic benefits of weed was forced to abide by a number of absurd regulations.
That included a law that required them to source any marijuana from a farm operated by the National Center for the Development of Natural Products at the University of Mississippi, which has long been the only place to legally source weed used for research. When you consider it’s the only place in America permitted to grow for those purposes, you’d think the people in charge would at least know how to produce some quality bud, but as Stang noted, that’s decidedly not the case:
“It’s basically ditch weed. I know a few of the people who were once one of the only four or five people in America who had a legal prescription for marijuana and they said it was awful.”
Thankfully, it appears the tides have finally begun to turn after far too long. According to Leafly, the DEA is on the verge of ending that farm’s long-standing monopoly, as it recently announced its plan to approve multiple applications that would allow researchers to grow marijuana that doesn’t resemble the seed-filled schwag they were formerly resigned to using.
The decision opens up the door for studies concerning potency, the intricacies of various strains, and other topics of interest that were previously illegal, and all I can say is it’s about damn time.