A bipartisan coalition of over two-dozen federal lawmakers, including House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), are backing newly introduced legislation — The Medical Cannabis Research Act of 2018 — to facilitate federally-approved clinical trials involving cannabis. Passage of this act would end the University of Mississippi’s existing monopoly on the growth of cannabis for clinical research purposes by requiring the licensing of additional manufacturers.
According to the DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Statistical Report, agents and cooperating agencies confiscated more than 5.3 million marijuana plants nationwide in 2016. The total is a 20 percent increase over the agency’s 2015 seizure totals and is the most plants seized by the DEA since 2011, when law enforcement confiscated more than 6.7 million plants.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration has publicly reiterated its position that cannabidiol, a non-psychotropic cannabinoid, is properly categorized under federal law as a schedule I controlled substance — meaning that, by definition, it possesses “a high potential for abuse,” “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States,” and lacks “accepted safety … under medical supervision.”
In a just published “exit interview” with Rolling Stone Magazine, President Barack Obama opined that marijuana use should be treated as a public-health issue, not a criminal matter, and called the current patchwork of state and federal laws regarding the drug “untenable.”
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration has rejected a pair of administrative petitions that sought to initiate rulemaking proceedings to reschedule marijuana under federal law.
Seizures of indoor and outdoor cannabis crops by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) fell in 2015, according to annual data compiled by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA announced that they will amend their quotas for 2017 regarding the cultivation of research-grade marijuana and hemp legalization bills in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have been signed into law! We also have updates from Illinois, Florida, and Ohio. Click here to learn the latest in marijuana law reform news from around the country and to find out how you can #TakeAction!
