The White House this week removed a major barrier for marijuana researchers, the Public Health Service Review. The review use to mean that each individual had to request to use pot for legitimate university research. This slowed the research process down significantly and made it even harder for academics to learn about the emerging drug.
The group Marijuana Majority said in a public statement that “a major federal roadblock to research on marijuana’s medical benefits has been lifted.”
The Department of Health and Human Services said the review “is no longer necessary to support the conduct of scientifically sound studies into the potential therapeutic uses of marijuana.” Bill Piper, Director of Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs, said:
This is progress, but the White House should also end the NIDA’s unique monopoly on marijuana production, and allow private entities to grow marijuana, thus facilitating even more important research.
Tom Angell of Marijuana Majority said:
The president has often said that drug policy should be dictated by unimpeded science instead of ideology, and it’s great to see the Obama administration finally starting to take some real action to back that up. But there’s more to be done. The next step should be moving marijuana out of Schedule I to a more appropriate category, which the administration can do without any further Congressional action. Given what the president and surgeon general have already said publicly about marijuana’s relative harms and medical uses, it’s completely inappropriate for it to remain in a schedule that’s supposed to be reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse and no therapeutic value. Hopefully today’s action is a sign of more to come.
One step closer my stoner friends.
