{"id":18683,"date":"2017-08-17T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T23:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2017\/08\/17\/doj-vs-dea-ag-sessions-is-blocking-cannabis-research\/"},"modified":"2017-08-18T00:47:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T08:47:23","slug":"doj-vs-dea-ag-sessions-is-blocking-cannabis-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2017\/08\/17\/doj-vs-dea-ag-sessions-is-blocking-cannabis-research\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ vs DEA: AG Sessions is Blocking Cannabis Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Anonymous law enforcement officials say the DOJ is blocking approval of permits for research grows \u2014 not<\/em> the DEA.<\/h4>\n
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U<\/span>ndisclosed law enforcement sources say\u00a0that roadblocks to growing cannabis for research are coming from the highest levels of the Department of Justice and not necessarily the longtime pot haters at the DEA.<\/p>\n

This revelation, made in a Washington Post article<\/a>, followed recent press around the DEA\u2019s refusal to issue licenses to grow medical cannabis for federal research. But Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barret report that, according to their sources, the DEA is ready to move forward on 25 proposals for consideration.<\/p>\n

But the next step in that process is approval from a DOJ run by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and the DOJ\u2019s current policy is to simply ignore requests to move forward on the Obama era lifting of restrictions on research.<\/p>\n

In refusing to issue approval, Sessions has become a one man embargo on cannabis science in the United States. Meanwhile, places like Israel, Canada and England rush to learn as much they can about the medical benefits of cannabis.<\/p>\n

Cannabis policy has been a prime stumbling block for Sessions since he took the reigns as the nation\u2019s top law enforcement official. His level of disgust for cannabis is special: Imagine thinking the Klu Klux Klan were swell guys until you found out they smoked pot<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s literally Sessions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But erasing the blame of the DEA? That\u2019s a tough pill to swallow for people who have watched the agency hinder cannabis research for years.<\/p>\n

NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano says the existing monopoly on the cultivation of research cannabis remains in place today because the DEA explicitly<\/em> set aside a legal opinion from its own Administrative Law Judge declaring that the agency should license private entities to grow cannabis for FDA-approved research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an example of the pot calling the kettle black,\u201d Armentano said. \u201cThe DEA has long held a \u2018flat Earth\u2019 position with regard to cannabis\u2026 this is an issue driven by ideology, not by science.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if the 25 applicants in limbo right now came from the National Institute on Drug Abuse\u2019s 2015 call for new cannabis cultivators, Armentano presumed that was the case.<\/p>\n

Some longtime advocates like Mason Tvert, who led Colorado\u2019s effort to legalize cannabis, were surprised to see the DOJ doing the blocking instead of the DEA, but stressed that, no matter who\u2019s to blame, it\u2019s bad policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfortunate that federal officials continue to hold up the process of studying cannabis,\u201d Tvert said. \u201cNine out of 10 Americans think marijuana should be legal for medical use, and there is no rational reason to continue obstructing research into its wide variety of medical benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the NIDA guidelines are to be used as an indicator of what they\u2019re looking for in a federally approved pot farm, applicants would need to have some serious resources at the ready: \u201c12 acres of outdoor growing space; a 1,000-square-foot indoor growing facility and a secure vault to maintain an inventory of approximately 400 to 700 kilograms of marijuana stock; cannabis extract and its drug dosage form; marijuana cigarettes and its active and inactive constituents under controlled conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELL US,<\/strong> do you think the DEA is unfairly passing off blame onto the DOJ?<\/p>\n

The post DOJ vs DEA: AG Sessions is Blocking Cannabis Research<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: DOJ vs DEA: AG Sessions is Blocking Cannabis Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anonymous law enforcement officials say the DOJ is blocking approval of permits for research grows \u2014 not the DEA. Undisclosed law enforcement sources say\u00a0that roadblocks to growing cannabis for research are coming from the highest levels of the Department of Justice and not necessarily the longtime pot haters at theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82,50,80,848,485,81,186],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18684,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683\/revisions\/18684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}