A new congressional bill would provide $150 million in marijuana research funding for universities over five years, while allowing those institutions to obtain cannabis for studies through partnerships with state regulatory agencies and law enforcement.
The legislation, introduced on Monday by Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who co-chair the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, is titled the Higher Education Marijuana Research Act.
It would add universities and public entities to the list of marijuana manufacturer applicants that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) would need to prioritize for research purposes, while also requiring yearly reports to Congress on that status of those applications and any reasons for denials.
“The legal, responsible use of cannabis has been a major economic driver in Nevada and across the country and deserves further research,” Titus said. “The Higher Education Marijuana Research Act would eliminate outdated federal restrictions that prevent universities and researchers from studying the full range of cannabis products that Americans are actually using today.”
“It makes no sense for the federal government to impede this research when millions of Americans are already using marijuana, whether for medical purposes or recreationally,” she said.
Omar said that the bill “removes outdated federal barriers that have long prevented universities from conducting critical cannabis research.”
“This legislation protects universities and researchers while lifting barriers so we can make better public health decisions,” she said.
One of the more interesting features of the measure is that it would allow universities located in legal states to “obtain or purchase marijuana from a State or tribal government marijuana regulatory body.”
Regulators aren’t typically involved in procuring cannabis from licensed retailers, but the idea behind the language is that it would give states flexibility to adopt new policies to have marijuana available through the government bodies for such purposes.
However they facilitate the access, universities would then be able to use that product to “study the type of marijuana in a State’s marketplace, public health considerations of marijuana policies in the State, and any potential medical benefits of marijuana.”
Cannabis that’s provided through partnerships with law enforcement, meanwhile, could not be administered to humans for clinical trials—which is likely partly due to health concerns about potentially contaminated unregulated products.
The bill further stipulates that students and researchers who are qualified to conduct and participate in the cannabis research would not lose eligibility for federal funding, student financial aid or face immigration penalties. The universities themselves would similarly be protected from any loss of funding related to the authorized research.
Within 90 days of enactment of the legislation, DEA would need to establish a Office of University Relations that would be required to “provide technical assistance to a researcher or institution of higher education seeking to register for the manufacture, distribution, or dispensation of a controlled substance” and “develop any technology necessary to provide the opportunity for a researcher or institution of higher education to amend an application prior to submission.”
Further, the measure states that, within 180 days of enactment, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would need to create a working group to make recommendations on how to “simplify and streamline the registration process” for universities seeking to manufacture marijuana for research.
That working group would need to consist of two representatives each from NIH, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), DEA and universities with experience studying cannabis. They would need to submit a report with findings and recommendations to various congressional committees within one year.
NIH would also have 90 days from enactment to establish a program within the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to provide grant funding to universities to support research into the potential medical benefits of marijuana. The bill authorizes the appropriation of $15 million for such grants each fiscal year from 2026-2030.
The program would need to prioritize approving grants to educational institutions that are located in legal cannabis jurisdictions, “accounting for geographic diversity and whether the institution of higher education is a minority institution.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would also need to create a separate grant program for universities “to study marijuana for agriculture purposes, including conservation and growth techniques, impacts on other crops, and the impact of different strains of marijuana on other crops.” The legislation authorizes the appropriation of $15 million annually to support grants that USDA would give out from fiscal year 2026-2030, with priority given to universities in legal states with consideration of geographic diversity and minority colleges.
Finally, the measure stipulates that international treaties prohibiting cannabis “shall not be construed to prohibit, or impose additional restrictions upon, research involving marijuana, or the manufacture, distribution, or dispensing of marijuana, that is conducted in accordance with the Controlled Substances Act.”
Titus filed a similar version of the legislation during the 118th Congress, but it didn’t advance.
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The proposal is one of the latest examples of congressional efforts to promote cannabis research as more states enact legal cannabis markets.
Last year, President Donald Trump signed a bill into law focused largely on permanently banning analogues of fentanyl that also contained provisions to remove barriers to conducting research into the risks and benefits of marijuana, psychedelics and other Schedule I drugs.
In January, however, the attorney general missed a deadline in the law to issue guidelines for easing barriers to such research.
In 2022, then-President Joe Biden signed a marijuana-focused research measure that gives the U.S. attorney general 60 days to either approve a given application or request supplemental information from a prospective research applicant. It also creates a more efficient pathway for researchers who request larger quantities of cannabis.
DEA has taken steps in recent years to approve new cultivators of marijuana to be used in studies.
Read the text of the Higher Education Marijuana Research Act below:
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