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
evan.halper@latimes.com
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.
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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.