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A bipartisan marijuana research bill that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday<\/a> will be \u201cenacted into law very soon,\u201d the Democratic sponsor said on Wednesday. But getting the limited, research-focused legislation in shape for Senate approval took significant compromise, he explained.<\/p>\n Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) spoke about the \u201cMedical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act\u201d at a briefing organized by the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC)<\/a>, expressing confidence that it\u2019s positioned to become the first piece of standalone marijuana reform legislation in the nation\u2019s history to reach the president\u2019s desk and become law.<\/p>\n When it was introduced earlier this month<\/a>\u2014billed as a merger of separate, standalone House and Senate cannabis research legislation that already passed in each respective chamber\u2014one key provision of the House version was notably omitted that would have allowed scientists to access marijuana from state-legal dispensaries for study purposes.<\/p>\n The final product that\u2019s now heading to a concurrence vote in the Senate after passing in the House by a vote of 325-95 this week is in fact virtually identical to the original Senate bill<\/a> from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).<\/p>\n Blumenauer said that during his meetings with Grassley, the two agreed that they \u201cwanted to get this across the finish line,\u201d which ultimately meant that the House champion needed to make a \u201ccompromise that most of the advocates would prefer we didn\u2019t, in terms of what would be the type of cannabis that would be available.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that that was a modest compromise to be able to get the research piece finally enacted,\u201d Blumenauer said. \u201cWe desperately need to be able to make sure that we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n But while lawmakers across the aisle have made clear that they support streamlining and modernizing marijuana research, especially with a majority of states already having enacted some form of legalization, the idea of letting scientists obtain cannabis from state-legal dispensaries was apparently a bridge too far for Senate negotiators.<\/p>\n Keeping that language from the original House bill<\/a> from Blumenauer and prohibitionist Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) would have been a tacit admission of the reality that marijuana retailers exist across the U.S. despite federal prohibition, and that could have compromised the measure\u2019s chances of passage in the Senate, a congressional source familiar with the thinking told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n Watch the congressman discuss his cannabis research bill, starting around 51:05 into the video below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cSo we have compromised the language. I think my language is better. I think most of the advocates would rather have my bill\u2014but I didn\u2019t want the perfect be the enemy of the better,\u201d Blumenauer said at the briefing on Wednesday. \u201cAnd so I made some concessions. The bill form that we have is one that will be acceptable to both the House and the Senate, and we\u2019re going to get it enacted into law very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n To the congressman\u2019s credit, the fact that 95 GOP House members voted against the bipartisan research proposal on Tuesday does signal that any bill that deals with marijuana at all\u2014no matter how narrowly tailored and bipartisan\u2014still faces knee-jerk resistance in some corners of Congress. And the 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation is the Senate is steep, leaving little room for dissent.<\/p>\n \u2014 So while even the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Nora Volkow, has said that she supports letting researchers access marijuana<\/a> that\u2019s available in commercial state markets across the country, that component was sidelined in the interest of getting something passed this session.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear when the Senate will take up the House-passed bill, but a source told Marijuana Moment last week that the chamber is expected to \u201cmove quickly\u201d on the legislation.<\/p>\n Under the\u00a0legislation<\/a>, the U.S. attorney general would be given a 60-day deadline to either approve a given application or request supplemental information from the marijuana research applicant. It would also create a more efficient pathway for researchers who request larger quantities of cannabis.<\/p>\n Further, the bill would encourage the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop cannabis-derived medicines. One way it proposed doing so is by allowing accredited medical and osteopathic schools, practitioners, research institutions, and manufacturers with a Schedule I registration to cultivate their own cannabis for research purposes.<\/p>\n The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) would get a mandate to approve applications to be manufacturers of marijuana-derived, FDA-approved drugs under the bill. Manufacturers would also be allowed to import cannabis materials to facilitate research into the plant\u2019s therapeutic potential.<\/p>\n Another section would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to look at the health benefits and risks of marijuana as well as policies that are inhibiting research into cannabis that\u2019s grown in legal states and provide recommendations on overcoming those barriers.<\/p>\n The bill further states that it \u201cshall not be a violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) for a State-licensed physician to discuss\u201d the risk and benefits of marijuana and cannabis-derived products with patients.<\/p>\n A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis published on Monday found that the proposal would reduce direct spending by less than $500,000 and would have a \u201cnegligible net change in the deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n There are only a few changes in this new bill compared to the original version the Senate passed earlier this year.<\/p>\n For example, the text now says that researchers don\u2019t need to notify or receive a review from DEA if change study protocols, as long as they already have a Schedule I registration. The previous language said broadly that researchers wouldn\u2019t need to reapply for approval. Also, the new version makes more explicit references to cannabis in the text, rather than \u201cdrug\u201d generally.<\/p>\n Another revision deals with a section that mandates the attorney general to conduct an annual review of the supply of cannabis that\u2019s available for research purposes. The new bill says DOJ must carry out that review in consultation with HHS, and says that the latter department would need to submit a report to Congress if it determines that the supply is inadequate.<\/p>\n Finally, a section of the original bill concerning the importation of CBD for research purposes was removed from the new measure.<\/p>\n Congressional researchers separately released a report in March that\u00a0details the challenges posed by ongoing federal prohibition<\/a>\u00a0and the options that lawmakers have available to address them.<\/p>\n DEA has taken steps in recent years to\u00a0approve new cultivators of marijuana to be used in studies<\/a>, and NIDA recently announced that it will be accepting applications from those authorized growers for one new contractor to supply the agency with cannabis for research purposes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, large-scale infrastructure legislation that was signed by Biden in November contains provisions aimed at\u00a0allowing researchers to study the actual marijuana that consumers are purchasing<\/a>\u00a0from state-legal businesses instead of having to use only government-grown cannabis.<\/p>\n House Appropriations Committee leaders recently introduced\u00a0a report on Fiscal Year 2023 spending legislation<\/a>\u00a0that says while they appreciate that NIDA has submitted documentation outlining the research implications of the strict scheduling of certain substances, there are still challenges such as the fact that scientists are still not able to access cannabis from dispensaries.<\/p>\n The report also talks about the need to develop \u201can objective standard to measure marijuana impairment to ensure highway safety.\u201d And it further emphasizes that part of the solution means freeing up researchers to obtain cannabis products from state-legal retailers that reflect \u201cthe diversity, quality, and potency of products commonly available to patients or consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n The committee additionally argued that funding for marijuana research has not kept pace with the spread of the state-level legalization movement, and it encouraged the National Institutes on Health (NIH) to support increased studies into potential therapeutic applications of cannabis and its constituents.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the new bipartisan, bicameral bill that passed the House was filed on the same day that a long-awaited Senate marijuana legalization bill was finally filed<\/a>\u2014more than a year after a draft version was first released by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and fellow sponsors.<\/p>\n While the prospects of that wide-ranging legislation making it through the Senate with a 60-vote threshold are dubious, an already-passed bipartisan cannabis research proposal that\u2019s even being sponsored by a prohibitionist like Harris seems like a comparably simple, albeit incremental, reform that stands a solid chance of being enacted if there are no procedural hiccups along the way.<\/p>\n President Joe Biden might be against adult-use legalization, but he campaigned on other incremental reforms like decriminalization, rescheduling and letting states set their own cannabis policies. He\u2019s expressed interest in the medical potential of marijuana and has advocated for more research, so it\u2019s likely that he would sign the bipartisan bill if it\u2019s ultimately sent to his desk.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a key Senate Judiciary subcommittee also held a hearing on Tuesday to\u00a0discuss next steps for federal cannabis reform<\/a>. The panel is chaired by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who is one of the three prime sponsors on the newly filed legalization bill.<\/p>\n At Wednesday\u2019s briefing, Blumenauer also talked about the bipartisan Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act. He said it\u2019s another example of incremental, popular reform that could \u201cbe the path forward to complete legalization.\u201d<\/p>\n While the chances of passing comprehensive legalization with major social equity provisions through the Senate are questionable, the cannabis banking legislation enjoys sizable bipartisan support.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re able to move SAFE Banking here, not only do we solve this horrific problem of injustice of inequality, public safety\u2014but we\u2019re breaking the logjam in terms of cannabis legislation because there will be no doubt about where people are after they have to vote on this. And you will find that more people will vote,\u201d Blumenauer said.<\/p>\n Biden Administration \u2018Exploring\u2019 Psychedelics Task Force Ahead Of Expected Federal Approval Of Psilocybin And MDMA<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Marijuana Research Bill Required \u2018Compromise\u2019 Over Dispensary Access For Scientists To Get Senate Buy-In, House Sponsor Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan marijuana research bill that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday will be \u201cenacted into law very soon,\u201d the Democratic sponsor said on Wednesday. But getting the limited, research-focused legislation in shape for Senate approval took significant compromise, he explained. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) spoke aboutContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":56190,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56189"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56191,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56189\/revisions\/56191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Marijuana Research Bill Required \u2018Compromise\u2019 Over Dispensary Access For Scientists To Get Senate Buy-In, House Sponsor Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"