{"id":81221,"date":"2025-05-14T05:23:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T13:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/05\/14\/director-of-doge-canceled-program-to-monitor-marijuana-potency-hopes-his-work-can-continue\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T19:46:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T03:46:44","slug":"director-of-doge-canceled-program-to-monitor-marijuana-potency-hopes-his-work-can-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/05\/14\/director-of-doge-canceled-program-to-monitor-marijuana-potency-hopes-his-work-can-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Of DOGE-Canceled Program To Monitor Marijuana Potency Hopes His Work Can Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

The head of a longtime program to track the potency of marijuana seized by law enforcement\u2014the federal contract for which was cut earlier this month by the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)<\/a>\u2014says it\u2019s still possible his work could limp along until funding resumes.<\/p>\n

But if samples stop flowing to his Mississippi lab, a decades-long history of THC levels in the illicit U.S. cannabis supply will soon come to an end, he says.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration last week announced the cancelation of the testing contract, which historically has been awarded to the University of Mississippi. For decades, the school was also the sole federally authorized cultivator of marijuana for research purposes.<\/p>\n

The potency monitoring program has tested marijuana samples seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other law enforcement agencies since the early 1970s, and its findings undergird popular claims by politicians, media and public health officials that cannabis potency has ballooned in recent decades.<\/p>\n

Data collected through the program indeed show a gradual increase in THC (and little change in CBD) content over the last three decades. Samples collected in 1995 showed an average of 3.96 percent THC, for example, compared to 16.14 percent THC in 2022.<\/p>\n

Mahmoud ElSohly, the Ole Miss pharmacologist who helms the school\u2019s Marijuana Research Project, told Marijuana Moment in an interview that he recently received the termination notice tied to the DOGE-canceled contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read through it, and it basically said, \u2018You need to stop doing stuff except for things that are already in progress; finish what you have in progress,’\u201d he said. \u201cSo don\u2019t analyze any new samples, don\u2019t request samples to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite those instructions, the researcher is trying to figure out if at least some of the work can carry on.<\/p>\n

The notice said that \u201cother activities could be continued, and they give some conditions for those to be continued,\u201d ElSohly pointed out. \u201cOne of those those conditions is if termination of that activity would be detrimental or have negative impact, loss to the government\u2014something to that meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

ElSohly\u2019s big hope is that DOGE\u2019s cancellation of the immediate contract doesn\u2019t stop the flow of samples to his lab, even if it does temporarily halt testing. He noted that the program encountered a separate funding gap about a decade ago but was able to avoid any major interruptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they stopped funding that, we continued to receive the samples,\u201d he said. \u201cNot too long after that, they decided, \u2018Oh, this thing really needs to be taken care of.’\u201d<\/p>\n

DOGE, of course, has over the past few months occasionally canceled funding for programs as part of its deep cuts to the federal government only to reverse course and reinstate individual contracts.<\/p>\n

ElSohly told Marijuana Moment he wasn\u2019t able to reach the contracting officer for the program by phone, so he sent an email making the case that cutting the program would in fact be detrimental to the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I really need\u2014at no additional cost to the government or NIDA [the National Institute on Drug Abuse]\u2014I need to continue to receive the samples through law enforcement,\u201d he explained. \u201cOnce I have the samples, we can analyze them when you have the money to analyze.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if I don\u2019t get the samples, and the DEA labs or law enforcement dispose of those samples,\u201d he added, \u201cthen this is information that\u2019s lost forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

ElSohly has been working on the monitoring project since 1976, becoming its director in 1981 after his predecessor left to become a drug policy advisor to the Reagan administration.<\/p>\n

Reached on a family vacation late last week, he said that ultimately the decision rests with the government as to whether or not the potency monitoring will continue. But he emphasized the value of the program, noting that its findings have been used by numerous government agencies and politicians over the decades who\u2019ve tied marijuana\u2019s increasing potency to issues like emergency room admissions and other health concerns.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also allowed his University of Mississippi team to produce marijuana for research purposes<\/a> that more closely resembles products found on the unregulated market, he said.<\/p>\n

And although many Americans now buy marijuana that\u2019s regulated and lab-tested for potency, ElSohly contended the program still shines a light on what\u2019s in products that fall outside legal boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonitoring what\u2019s actually out there is very important,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that the regulations might change one way or the other doesn\u2019t mean that the illicit market is going to be following the regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

While ElSohly believes that findings from the illicit marijuana potency monitoring program have offered a valuable perspective on THC levels in America\u2019s marijuana supply, others in the cannabis space say the effort is far from essential.<\/p>\n

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the advocacy group NORML, described the program as \u201carguably well-intentioned\u201d but said that \u201cfar too often it provided data of limited significance that was far more likely to be used to facilitate political agendas rather than legitimate scientific purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the program\u2019s infancy, by investigators\u2019 own admission, researchers only had access to degraded marijuana samples of artificially low potency,\u201d he told Marijuana Moment in an email. \u201cIn the 1980s and 1990s, samples included feral ditch-weed\u2014which skewed the program\u2019s overall results. In recent years, budget cuts led to investigators to reduce the overall total of samples tested to the extent that it became difficult to gain any accurate sense of national potency trends or assess year-over-year comparisons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, over the lifespan of this program, there always existed significant limitations to the data it produced,\u201d Armentano said. \u201cFurther, the advent of state-specific cannabis potency testing, which allows state-licensed researchers to assess a far greater array of cannabis samples for purity and potency than was ever previously possible by the U-Miss program, has in some ways made the need for this program nearly obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to USAspending.gov, $30,155.76 of the total $142,839.00 contract<\/a>\u00a0amount has already been outlaid to the\u00a0university<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government spending site says the contract has now been terminated \u201cfor convenience\u201d as of May 1 as part of \u201cimplementing the president\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency cost efficiency initiative.<\/p>\n

The contract cancellation comes about two months after\u00a0DOGE separately promoted the end of a grant<\/a>\u00a0meant to fund a study examining cannabis use risks among LGBTQ+ individuals, non-binary people and heterosexual women.<\/p>\n

Many advocates had hoped that, rather than inhibiting cannabis research, Elon Musk and his team at DOGE would seek to cut costs by targeting agencies such as DEA that have perpetuated marijuana criminalization.<\/p>\n

Instead, DEA has ramped up recruitment\u2014recently urging people to join them on the frontlines of the \u201cwar on drugs,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0even if they currently work as a \u201ccoffee barista\u201d or otherwise have a non-law enforcement background.<\/p>\n

It was also recently revealed that\u00a0\u201cmarijuana\u201d is one of nearly two dozen \u201ccontroversial or high-profile topics\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that staff and researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are required to clear with higher-ups before writing about, according to a leaked memo from within the federal agency.<\/p>\n

DOGE\u2019s Musk, meanwhile, said in February that he thinks it\u2019s a \u201cgreat idea\u201d to mandate drug testing of federal employees as he pushes to make massive cuts to government agencies and spending.<\/p>\n

In response, a Democratic congresswoman filed a bill that would\u00a0require Musk and other DOGE workers to submit to drug testing<\/a>\u00a0to maintain their \u201cspecial government employee\u201d status.<\/p>\n

While DOGE has made cannabis research-related grant cuts, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently announced that it\u2019s looking for contractors to\u00a0analyze and explain scientific evidence on medical marijuana<\/a>\u00a0to clinicians and the general public as part of its Systematically Testing the Evidence of Marijuana (STEM) project.<\/p>\n

\n

Trump\u2019s VA Secretary Meets With Psychedelic Therapy Advocate To Discuss Expanding Access For Military Veterans<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Director Of DOGE-Canceled Program To Monitor Marijuana Potency Hopes His Work Can Continue<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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The head of a longtime program to track the potency of marijuana seized by law enforcement\u2014the federal contract for which was cut earlier this month by the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)\u2014says it\u2019s still possible his work could limp along until funding resumes. But if samples stop flowing toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81221"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81222,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81221\/revisions\/81222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}