Federal agencies are moving forward with plans to increase the US government’s production of research-grade cannabis.
Last week, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) publicly announced in the Federal Register that it is increasing its marijuana production quota from 21 kilograms to 650 kilograms (about 1,443 pounds) in order to meet increasing demand for the plant from clinical investigators.
Federal regulations permit a farm at the University of Mississippi to cultivate set quantities of cannabis for use in federally approved clinical trials. Regulators at the DEA, the US Food and Drug Administration, PHS (Public Health Service), and the US National Institute on Drug Abuse must approve any clinical protocol seeking to study the plant’s effects in human subjects.
On various occasions, marijuana reform advocates and researchers have publicly criticized NIDA for failing to approve proposed trials seeking to assess the therapeutic benefits of cannabis. However, in March, federal regulators finally signed off on a long-delayed clinical protocol from researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine to evaluate the use of cannabis its in war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress. Also this spring, lawmakers in several states, including Alabama, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, passed legislation encouraging state-sponsored clinical trials to assess the therapeutic potential of cannabidiol – a nonpsychotropic organic component of cannabis – in the treatment of intractable epilepsy.
“The additional supply [of cannabis] to be manufactured in 2014 is designed to meet the current and anticipated research efforts involving marijuana,” A NIDA spokesperson told TheHill.com. “[T]his projection of increased demand is due in part to the recent increased interest in the possible therapeutic uses of marijuana.”
According to a keyword search using the terms ‘smoked marijuana’ on the clinicaltrials.gov website, eight trials are presently ongoing to evaluate the plant’s effects in humans. Two of these trials are assessing the plant’s potential therapeutic efficacy.
So then in conclusion: “If the Government is the only one who can “Grow and Cultivate MMJ”;
and if the Government contracts with U Miss;
and if the University of Missisisspi is NOT a Government Agency; then why cannot other Universities culitvate MMJ for research study?
And furthermore: If the US Gov. contracts with The Univeristy of Miss “to cultivate MMJ;
and if the UMiss Plantation is a mere 5 acres outdoors and some indoor cultivation; How could this be enough for the NIDA Research ?
What do they do ? “Harvest the Herb Buds from the 5 acre farm; dry and package Herb in kilos
then put the kilos in the back of a truck and drive the MJ Kilos over to the NIDA building ?
Then use those Kilos for the NIDA Drug Supply?
Isn’t that “growing and culitvation the Herb?
Wouldn’t this constidute an NIDA drug factory
I mean after all a poor fellow in Connecticut where I live had all of !0 plants last week in home and he was arrrested as a drug factory
The Gov. would take another decade of research
so therefore I say: Million Marijuana March
Washington DC Summer 2005 Woodstock revistied
I have read the post and still havent seen where it is written that the dea will be stealing or paying for their cut of the grown cannabis……
So if they are buying it , isnt that grounds for some kind of diciplenary action?( since it would be bought with tax money)
and if they are not paying for it shouldnt it be some kind of stealing charges be brought up?
out of all the cannabis that has been taken from growers and stored in their warehouse , shouldnt they have more then enough cannabis on hand already?
They know our government holds patents on certain parts of cannabis,,,,,,so im a little bit confused on this topic…….what about the Schafer Report ……how many more test need to be ran on a political level? when do the dr’s who are way more qualified get to run test on any of the cannabis questions being asked?
ALot of things are changing towards cannabis and now things are getting weird when those who have slamed the cannabis world for years , are now wanting to obtain a large amount of cannabis for clinical testing……..
this should be left up to those who are not and never where against the useage of cannabis…….like dr’s
this is like giving the fox in the hen house a basket full of eggs…….
nothing good will come of this…
as always
thanks for reading
chris
@chris, My impression the cannabis they confiscate is destroyed– in order to reduce the supply available, drive up the price so it is ten times as expensive as tobacco, diverting kids to buy $igarettes instead, leading to $igarette tax profits for the government (and campaign money for Republicans etc.).
@Anne, if you can get a $igarette with 45 tokes in it, just tear off a tiny piece (25 mg) from the tip and stuff that in the screened crater of your Flexible Drawtube One-Hitter.
Comment: I read once “the NIDA has a compnesation program for medical marijuana whereas the researchers have the option to “compensate the gov. or not to compensate”(compensate means monetary); (NIDA)
@mexweed: thanks for suggestion ! “will try !@
re: Schaeffer report “related article”
“Daniel speaks 11 languages, one of which is Icelandic. In 2007, Channel Five documentary challenged him to learn the language in a week. Seven days later, Daniel was successfully interviewed on Icelandic television (in Icelandic, of course!)…
This guy is labeled w a “learning disability!!
Wasn’t G-13, that famous strain thats been talked about so much in the “inner circles ,actually discovered and developed at The University of Mississippi,or is that some “Urban Legend- Old Wives Tale bullshit?
NORML -Enquiring minds want too know?!!!
The Fed’s , have been in the drug business from the 1960. They grow it in Mississippi, and always have…They are the one’s supplying marnoil to the V. A. for years.
OMG, was it useful, YES. But Big Pharamacy couldn’t make BIG buck’s off it . But we the US tax payers have paid for ALL kinds of studies. Done in our good friends country Isreal. Look at Cancer the forbidden drug: You Tube
Apparently we are not only paying for Obama’s booze bill in the Whitehouse. I knew they had to be smoking something when they came up with the aca. “We have to pass the bill before we will know what is in the bill…”
The increase in production of cannabis at Ol’ Miss is an attempt by NIDA to turn cannabis from Panacea to Placebo. Mr. Armentano wrote that Ol’ Miss is growing cannabis strains with 0% THC, or even “placebo,” or non-medicinal strains of cannabis. Put that puzzle piece together with some of the horrible Republican-backed legislation for CBD medicine for epileptics passed in states like Alabama and… Hey, Mississipi just passed some ridiculously ineffective and inaccessible CBD medicine for epileptic patients… They made the CBD content requirements too low to be effective… Ding! A growing-lamp lightbulb just went off in my head.
Could this increased production from NIDA be a horrible plot to supply placebo, or less effective strains of cannabis to adults and children suffering from epilepsy? Will GW Pharmacueticals stand to profit when they publicize their expensive, more effective version, (exclusively permitted by the Department of Health and Human services) and say “our marijuana works better?” What’s the price-tag going to be on that life-saving marijuana? Let me guess; Will buying GW Pharm’s packaged marijuana for life cost more than a private, climate-controlled hydroponic-marijuana-growing device for epileptic patients to grow their own sustainable medicine?
For the LOVE of ALL that’s GOOD and HOLY!!! LEGALIZE MARIJUANA!!! CONGRESS NEEDS TO GROW A PAIR SO WE CAN GROW OUR OWN!!!
My Congressman is Lamar Smith. Writing to him to legalize marijuana feels like writing to an uneducated, two-headed rattlesnake. But I keep writing, in hopes that one of his two faces is listening. What kind of world does he want for his children? What is the whole world worth if it comes at the price of his soul? Educating our Congressman is vital, (perhaps without the condescending banter). Our collective miseducation about what we are, what marijuana is and what is a safe, sustainable medicine is depressing if we neglect to participate in the education of ourselves and others. Our enemies and representatives may choose not to listen to reason, they may choose hate and prohibition for profit, but at least we can rest in good conscience that we did not stand idly by while our government trained this evil hypocrisy upon us. We can at least say we participated in the Democratic process, we called, we wrote, and we provided education to our elected officials. And when they did not listen, we marched. And when the would not look, we shouted. And when they offered us death, suffering and imprisonment for the profit of Congress, corrupt agents and corporations, we offered them a world of love, peace and socioeconomic equality and prosperity.
With this faith in our hearts, we are turning the tides of prohibition; Love is stronger than pride. And the tragic heroes and villains of prohibition are playing their final act of hubris in this 77-year old American Cannabis Tragedy that will soon write its end.
We desperately need cultivar (strain) research going on and this is variety not stated cannabis. True scientific studies need to be closely controlled.
How convenient… I’m sure the Feds are growing way more, distributing to legal sources throughout the nation where applicable, collecting and laughing all the way to the bank. Lots of folks are FINALLY beginning the potential economic impact cannabis could have on our nation. Not to mention the positive impact it could have on the stressed out, fast paced and pissed off collective mindset that’s plaguing this country. Would not surprise me.
The ACA was not passed for patients or their caregivers. It was passed for their administrators to take away the requirement they had to convince people to pay their premiums and turned it into law. As well they took away the patients and their caregivers rights to decide what is available to choose from. Healthcare can never be a one size fits all glove that fits either a right or left handed users because it is personal a perscribed for an individual and their particular needs. Respect the truth and knowledge while fearmongering is set to the sideline of intolerance.
@Chris, Wonder if the govt. could be persuaded to supple hemp to researchers trying to develop cultivars (sp.?) which grow beyond annual into perennial life, forming 10, 20, 100-year-old monster trees to remedy the criminal deforestation of the last 10,000 years (agriculture). Rieferforestation could be the greatest gift our Handplant can hand us.
PS Regarding Indiana, Illinois, Iowa (and if applicable, India, Ireland and Israel)– CORN is said to be a good PRECURSOR CROP for cannabis– as cannabis is for trees.
As I sit and watch all this unfold, I thought “how hard would it be to be in buisness of this cannabis boom.”…..So in my state of Illinois I researched how to become a forefront runner , and was soon stoped by the laws that was created by politicians in the state…..The average person who wants to be in or have anything to do with cannabis is SOL.
The up front cost to the state is set so HI that the only groups who are allowed in this business is….BIG BUSINESS……When I grew up This was the land of the free and if you had the will power and determination you could have any business you wanted and now the truth of it is , unless you come from money you wont ever have the chance to have any of it….
Protection,…. I believe is what the state decieded to do when it said only those with a $500,000 up front may apply for permission to be in the new booming business, that way they didnt have all the problems they have had in other states…..
SO with that said if your a hard worker and have stayed on the right side of the law and want to have the chance to become part of the cannabis business to make more money in life, forget it in Illinois because they figure if you dont have $500,000 laying around to not worry about then you may become a problem in this state…….
Im not a trouble maker and would like to have the chance to become part of this movement , but at the present state I will have to work my dead end job because this state wants to have lots of “ditch diggers” and no more entrepreneurs to make a living by taking a chance……..
I guess by The way the Hb 01 was written a group or non profit can run one ….so anyone with money in Illinois want to get together?
I have nothing but time and determination to donate……
As always
thanks for reading
chris
@chris next door to hoosier,
Here’s my thought on that $500,000– probably applies to those who want to GROW herb (and I agree it’s unfair) BUT: can you get into a handworkerly side-biz of making NONWASTEFUL NONEXPENSIVE vape toke utensils?
For FREE directions check “Socket Wrench Flexible Drawtube One-Hitter” and “Hose Nipple Flexible Drawtube One-Hitter” in the wikiHow.com “Make Pipes from Everyday Objects” article. The devices to be legally marketed as usable for any sifted particulate dry herb— alfalfa, basil, chamomile, damiana, eucalyptus, fo-ti-tieng, ginseng leaf, hops flower, not excluding cannabis AND tobacco (tear 1/28 (25 mg) off any $igarette and vapetoke it instead of lighting the whole damn 700-mg overdose).
To donate your time and determination effectively,
1. Study the how-to article, master the content, practice making the one-hitters (almost as good as vape pens at 1/10 the cost), add text improvements, add better diagrams or photos etc.
2. Send friends or Craigslist-responders to article where they can bone up on how to do the work.
3. Schedule a hands-on seminar where interested persons visit your workshop, see demonstrations how to manufacture the equipment, practice doing it, sign on as employees or partners depending on what social orientation you and they can handle.
4. Develop “vertical” bizness arrangements where one shop makes parts or partly finished utensils, another makes finished product, someone else distributes to vape shops where one-hitters are sold along with only slightly better but much more expensive e-cigs and vape pens.
5. After a year or two in the anti-jointpapers reform utensil bizness, maybe you’re sure to make contact with someone who has the money to help you get into herb-itself marketing if that’s what you’re set on?
Let’s Grow a Pair and Grow Our Own!
Hello my comment is Concerning Herbs in general; many if not most Herbs (leaves/roots)
have some type of medicinal value; Herbs are basically small plants which grow everywhere; like Mint: Chamomile; St. John’s Wort; Hemp;
The Herbal Kingdom must be opened and studied.
like Mint: ginko; Valerian Root + Marijuana
Herbs should have their FDA classification. @
Sorry I thought that was a good link, Here is one I hope it works. This is a story about a doctor and scientist; initially he discovered a way to cure children of brain cancer. You see children can not take chemo and radiation it fries their brain. He now has a clinic in I believe it is in Houston. He now treats and cures adults as well. Here the link it is a fascinating story.