The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is seeking “qualified organizations” to grow, harvest, and supply marijuana for clinical research, according to an announcement posted on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website. NIDA oversees a marijuana farm at the University of Mississippi at Oxford and is the only legal U.S. producer of marijuana for research purposes.
“NIDA’s 25 year stranglehold on marijuana research may be loosening,” NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said. “For too long, NIDA has hand-picked its marijuana research protocols and researchers, which have consistently been anti-marijuana.”
The NIDA announcement states that organizations wishing to grow marijuana “must possess the necessary field or growing facility, laboratory space, instrumentation and experience to conduct the work.” The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) must approve security for the facility, and register researchers to handle the drug.
NIDA will accept proposals from interested parties until August.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.