Politics
Sessions: Expanding Marijuana Cultivation For Research Is “Healthy”
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is no fan of legalizing marijuana, but he indicated on Wednesday that he supports letting more people grow it for research purposes.
“I think it would be healthy to have some more competition in the supply,” he said, alluding to the fact that all cannabis used for research in the U.S. is grown at a single farm at the University of Mississippi.
Sessions, testifying at an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, was responding to a question from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) about press reports that the Department of Justice is stymying efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to grant additional licenses to cultivate cannabis for medical research.
Last year the DEA enacted a new policy intended to license more research cultivation facilities, a move that came on the same day the agency rejected petitions to reschedule marijuana.
Researchers have long argued that it is difficult to access cannabis from the Mississippi farm, which has maintained a monopoly on the legal supply of marijuana since 1968, and that the product is often of low quality.
The DEA has reportedly received at least 25 applications to participate in the new licensing program but has not acted on any of them. According to the Washington Post, that is because top Justice Department officials have stepped in to prevent the agency from acting.
Hatch, who recently introduced legislation to remove roadblocks to studies on marijuana’s medical benefits, told Sessions that he is concerned about the reports that the Justice Department might be impeding expanding research.
Sessions responded that while he agrees it would be “healthy” to add new cultivation facilities, he is concerned about the cost of needed DEA oversight of any new grow sites.
Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore.
