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Researchers Could Study Marijuana From Dispensaries Under Bill Getting Congressional Committee Vote This Week

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A congressional committee plans to vote this week on a bill that would allow researchers to study marijuana products from state-legal dispensaries, rather than have them rely on a very limited supply of cannabis preparations from what is currently the only federally authorized source.

The intent of the provision, which is tucked into a 1,200-plus-page transit bill that will go before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, is to let scientists conduct impaired driving research using the actual marijuana products that consumers are purchasing and using. It would also allow the interstate distribution of cannabis to scientists in jurisdictions that have not yet enacted legalization.

This is not the main crux of the INVEST in America Act, a bill focused on providing funding for highway and transportation projects. An earlier version of the measure cleared the House last Congress with identical marijuana provisions but did not advance in the GOP-controlled Senate.

The legislation also contains a separate section that would require legal marijuana states—and only those states—to consider methods of educating people about and discouraging impaired driving from cannabis. Advocates take issue with that language simply because it targets legalized jurisdictions while ignoring the fact that marijuana-impaired driving takes place regardless of its legal status.

But they are encouraged by the provision calling on the Department of Transportation to consult with the attorney general and Department of Health and Human Services to develop a report with recommendations on providing researchers with access to “samples and strains of marijuana and products containing marijuana lawfully being offered to patients or consumers” in legal states.

The report should also explore “establishing a national clearinghouse to collect and distribute samples and strains of marijuana for scientific research,” the text of the proposal states, and that would include cannabis from state-legal markets.

Finally, the measure states that the report, which would be due two years after the bill’s enactment, should analyze “statutory and regulatory barriers to the conduct of scientific research and the establishment of a national clearinghouse for purposes of facilitating research on marijuana-impaired driving.”

While these cannabis-related provisions may seem somewhat outside the scope of the large-scale transportation legislation, the research elements could help resolve an ongoing access issue for researchers interested in studying marijuana while the substance is strictly controlled under federal statute.

But since the bill’s initial introduction last year, some steps have been taken to resolve that issue. Most notably, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently notified several companies that it is moving toward approving their applications to become federally authorized marijuana manufacturers for research purposes.

That marks a significant development—and one of the first cannabis-related moves to come out of the Biden administration. There is currently a monopoly on federal cannabis cultivation, with the University of Mississippi having operated the only approved facility for the past half-century.

But that move from DEA would still not free up researchers to access marijuana products from state-legal retailers in the way the transportation bill would allow if it is enacted.

The other cannabis provision that was included in the base transportation bill has not been well-received by reform advocates.

Under the legislation, sponsored by House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), a section of current law requiring that states establish highway safety programs would be amended to add a section stipulating that states “which have legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana shall consider programs in addition to the programs…to educate drivers on the risks associated with marijuana-impaired driving and to reduce injuries and deaths resulting from individuals driving motor vehicles while impaired by marijuana.”

While advocates are supportive of measures to reduce impaired driving, some have raised issues with the implication that legalizing cannabis increases the risk of people driving while under the influence. Research isn’t settled on that subject.

A federally funded study recently promoted by the National Institute of Justice also found that the amount of THC in a person’s system after consuming marijuana is not an accurate predictor of impairment.

New Connecticut Marijuana Legalization Bill Released, With Votes Expected This Week

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Kyle Jaeger is Marijuana Moment's Sacramento-based managing editor. His work has also appeared in High Times, VICE and attn.

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