Feds limit research on marijuana for medical use

Feds limit research on marijuana for medical use

Federal money going to research medical marijuana faces many roadblocks. Just about the whole country recognizes that marijuana has medical benefits, but because of partisan bickering, corruption, and good old fashioned government bureaucracy we can't seem to make any progress on the federal level for research into this plant. This article goes into some of those roadblocks and problems.

An analysis by News21 shows that $1.1 billion of the $1.4 billion that the National Institutes of Health spent on marijuana research from 2008 to 2014 went to study abuse and addiction. Only $297 million was spent on its effects on the brain and potential medical benefits for those suffering from conditions like chronic pain. News21 is a Carnegie-Knight national student reporting project based at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

“We don't have new things to treat for pain,” Dr. Todd Vanderah, chief of pharmacology at the University of Arizona, said. “We're still dealing with narcotics that have been around for thousands of years, and it's led to this issue of people abusing drugs, and the rise of heroin.”

Why does SO much money have to go towards studying marijuana abuse and addiction? How much more can we learn about it? It's the least addicting substance (yes, it IS addicting) among all the known recreational drugs and even the abuse aspect really doesn't destroy your life as badly as other drugs.

Yet researchers like Vanderah have faced challenges getting federal approval and funding to study marijuana’s potential medical uses for these and many other conditions. “The progress is a little limited because research is done based off of grants that have been harder and harder to get,” Vanderah said.

Although medical and even recreational marijuana use has been increasingly legalized by states, the federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug — along with heroin and ecstasy — defining it as having potential for abuse and no medical benefits.

Yes, that pesky Schedule 1 status is screwing everything up.

The approval process for doing any kind of research on marijuana is lengthy and difficult, with the FDA, Drug Enforcement Agency and National Institute on Drug Abuse all playing a role in allowing an approved researcher access to federal funding and federally-provided marijuana.

...


Fewer than 1,000 NIH-supported research projects studied marijuana for purposes other than abuse or addiction in the last seven years. University-backed researchers and a few larger companies have been able to use their own funding, rather than grants from the NIH, and their own advanced laboratories to study marijuana and cannabinoids — the chemicals found within it — as potential treatments for conditions such as seizures and breast cancer pain.

Seriously, why does bureaucracy have to be so damn STUBBORN sometimes? Do we really think the above is a GOOD thing?

News21 analyzed federally funded drug research projects from 2008 to 2014 using the NIH’s publicly available database. The $1.1 billion the agency spent to study marijuana abuse and addiction was $200 million more than what the organization spent on research into crystal meth, a highly addictive stimulant that the DEA has called an epidemic.

While NIH spent $297 million on grants for non-abuse research of marijuana, it provided two to four times as much for similar research of opiates and benzodiazepines, including drugs such as Xanax, according to the News21 analysis. Opiates are the narcotics that Vanderah said can cause prescription drug dependency or even heroin abuse.

Why are these drugs more important to research? We KNOW a great deal about these drugs already, and we are starting to learn that marijuana is a better alternative to many of them. Especially crystal meth...

Ok so now you are thinking, "Why doesn't the DEA just reschedule it and be done with it?" Well it's not that easy. Enter our good friends, government bureaucracy and corruption.

Marijuana was temporarily designated as Schedule 1, but President Richard Nixon created a commission to do a review of the drug to determine if it should keep the most restrictive scheduling. The commission’s findings from research projects and public polls made up almost 4,000 pages of reports and technical papers published in four volumes in 1972. It concluded that marijuana should not be criminalized, and suggested rescheduling the drug. But Nixon decided otherwise.

Blood boiling yet? Just wait. It get's better.

One hundred sixty substances have been removed, added or transferred from one schedule to another since the Controlled Substances Act went into effect.

Investigators working with Schedule 1 drugs need an additional level of clearance from the DEA, also created during the Nixon administration to enforce the laws of the Controlled Substances Act and to regulate the use of controlled substances. Wallace, the doctor at UC-San Diego, cited five separate state and federal groups that sent him requests before he received approval for his research on how different doses of marijuana might be used to treat pain.

Ugh... Now for the coup de grace.

That change is easier said than done, according to Matthew Barden, a DEA spokesman. “A lot of people in the marijuana debate say to just put it under a different schedule. But in order to do that, the FDA would have to change everything.” Barden said. “So we, the DEA, can’t just put something in Schedule 2. That would be a violation of how things are scheduled.”

Rescheduling can be done by congressional or administrative action. A few bills have been proposed in Congress, but they’ve all died in committee.

The administrative route involves more steps and more agencies. To get the ball rolling, a petition must be filed by an interested outside party or by the secretary of Health and Human Services. The attorney general reviews the petition, then sends it back to HHS to request scientific and medical evaluation by the FDA.

So in other words we have to rely on our ever "efficient" Congress to do this OR rely on this getting shuffled around people's offices for years before we all learn that someone forgot to stamp the right form and then we start over and all the other fun things that come with government paperwork.

But that's not all! The good news just keeps on coming. Even procuring the marijuana for research is difficult.

Even when researchers are cleared to do federally funded marijuana research, they must obtain their marijuana from a farm at the University of Mississippi operated under the authority of NIDA. The farm is nestled in the eastern portion of the 640-acre Ole Miss campus, a short distance from the stadium where the Rebels play football.

The heavily secured farm is surrounded by fences, guard towers and vaults. The sprawling 12-acre, marijuana farm, with its growing room, is the only federally sanctioned marijuana grow in the country.

Naturally, we have to guard the federal government's pot stash like Fort Knox...

[cont in next post]

Yea I know, a two post OP, but bare with me. It's a lot of information to digest, and we all need to learn about why it's not so easy to just demand that government reschedule the drug as well as why it is imperative that it MUST be rescheduled.

Before researchers can obtain marijuana and start their studies, they need three things: an approved investigational new drug application from the FDA, a letter of approval from NIDA and a Schedule 1 clearance from the DEA.

DEA approval is needed for possessing and transporting the marijuana and researchers must prove they have a secure facility to store and keep track of the marijuana. Once they have both FDA and DEA approval, researchers can contact NIDA to obtain their marijuana.

Seriously, why all the security?

Limited grant availability to fund those requests means that researchers need the backing and funding of a major university — as Vanderah has with Arizona or Wallace has with UC-San Diego — or business investors. Britain-based GW Pharmaceuticals has turned investor funding into marijuana research advances in the United States. Its British base allows GW to work with marijuana grown in its greenhouse in the United Kingdom.

So basically researchers need big money to get research grants to research this. Yet we all know how the pharmaceutical industry feels about this plant. Things starting to become clearer now?

Seriously, the fact that marijuana is this illegal is a crime against US. When are we going to actually hold the government accountable it?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

We have so much to thank Nixon for.... not.

I think the war on drugs is the target we should be affixed upon rather than awarding more regulatory power to the FDA by rescheduling.

I am certainly not opposed to states nullifying unconstitutional federal laws though as an interim measure.

a reply to: greencmp

I agree. The war on drugs as a whole is the real elephant in the room. Heck, it's not an elephant, it's a fricking jumbo jet.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Yes, it IS addicting.

No, it IS not.

a reply to: greencmp

almost 40 years in the war on drugs and I can make a few phone calls and have any drug i want in 20 minutes.

Maybe its time to admit they lost.

Can't we get a couple million signatures on a petition "telling" the government we want it rescheduled ? And wouldn't they have to listen ? I mean...I think we could easily prove that the consensus of the people is to have it rescheduled. So if they don't listen to that can't we call out our National Guard units and Local Militias and march on Washington and tell them to comply....or else ??

a reply to: real_one

All substances are addicting in some way. Even food is addicting. Just because the addiction is negligible and easily overcome by most doesn't mean it isn't addicting.

originally posted by: alienjuggalo
a reply to: greencmp

almost 40 years in the war on drugs and I can make a few phone calls and have any drug i want in 20 minutes.

Maybe its time to admit they lost.

The worst is that any teenager has better access to those drugs than most adults would, and part of the whole idea of the war on drugs is to keep them out of the hands of kids. Consequently, if the drugs were to be legalized and sold through dispensaries like is done with alcohol, it would be MUCH tougher for kids to obtain them.

originally posted by: alienjuggalo
a reply to: greencmp

almost 40 years in the war on drugs and I can make a few phone calls and have any drug i want in 20 minutes.

Maybe its time to admit they lost.

PM me your number....

Krazy, you did quote above that outside sources could get it re-scheduled....Does that include a petition from "we the people"???

I am sure we could get 100 million signatures in about a day.....If that is the case, let's just legalize it all! Let people make their OWN decisions on what they put in their body instead of paying a "doctor" to do that for us....Just a thought

originally posted by: Chrisfishenstein
I am sure we could get 100 million signatures in about a day.....If that is the case, let's just legalize it all! Let people make their OWN decisions on what they put in their body instead of paying a "doctor" to do that for us....Just a thought

You'll get no arguments from me on that one. I've been an avid critic of the entire war on drugs for quite some time.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: alienjuggalo
a reply to: greencmp

almost 40 years in the war on drugs and I can make a few phone calls and have any drug i want in 20 minutes.

Maybe its time to admit they lost.

The worst is that any teenager has better access to those drugs than most adults would, and part of the whole idea of the war on drugs is to keep them out of the hands of kids. Consequently, if the drugs were to be legalized and sold through dispensaries like is done with alcohol, it would be MUCH tougher for kids to obtain them.

Amen brother!

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: Chrisfishenstein
I am sure we could get 100 million signatures in about a day.....If that is the case, let's just legalize it all! Let people make their OWN decisions on what they put in their body instead of paying a "doctor" to do that for us....Just a thought

You'll get no arguments from me on that one. I've been an avid critic of the entire war on drugs for quite some time.

That would get rid of the "drug cartels" that make gazillions of dollars and put that money back into our actual monetary issues currently...Not saying it is the answer but it sure would help!

a reply to: Chrisfishenstein

To be honest, the drug cartel problem has gone unsolved for so long that it has evolved into a bigger threat than just drugs. So legalizing drugs isn't the end all be all solution to getting rid of them. It's more complicated than that now. Of course the reason for that is because we as a nation have neglected this problem for so long and let it get bigger and bigger until they had the ability to diversify their crime portfolio.

Though, I still do believe that legalizing drugs would definitely have a measurable effect on most, if not all of the drug cartels.

originally posted by: alienjuggalo
a reply to: greencmp

almost 40 years in the war on drugs and I can make a few phone calls and have any drug i want in 20 minutes.

Maybe its time to admit they lost.

LMFAO...True!!! I agree that it is political corruption and corporate greed that has stunted the progress in regards to this heavenly plant. However I do feel as though change will be coming within maybe 5-10 years. Their is a lot of momentum behind the movement and we are already seeing the ice begin to thaw.

Actually this is the best time and opportunity to put money into legitimate cannabis based companies. So I suggest people do some research and find companies that you believe in and start chipping money in the pot. Their are major firms that are already publicly traded with high dollar shares all the way to the penny stocks which is where the savvy investor is going to find their fortune.

I mentioned in another thread that I purchased like 17,500 shares into one particular stock which is on a hot watch list for a total of $300 so lets say that particular stock caps out at $10 dollars a share I just made $170,000. Not bad for a $300 investment right? Now if the company flounders and fails then hey I'm only out $300 bucks which I will piss away on a weekend of reckless abandon sometimes.

Just follow the yellow brick road to the emerald city.

a reply to: TrappedPrincess

Yea, I've been seriously considering doing this as well. I just need to do my research into which companies look the most promising. Got any suggestions on companies by any chance?

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: TrappedPrincess

Yea, I've been seriously considering doing this as well. I just need to do my research into which companies look the most promising. Got any suggestions on companies by any chance?

GW pharmaceuticals is the only one I have seen on multiple lists but it is already above $100 a share and is an established company. So the beginning investor isn't going to find their fortune there unless they invest BIG time but it is still not bad as a longterm kind of growth savings account.

Stevia Corp has been referred to as the wild card by one list. Oh I'll just post the link I have and that is a good place to start.

Hot pot stocks to watch

originally posted by: TrappedPrincess

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: TrappedPrincess

Yea, I've been seriously considering doing this as well. I just need to do my research into which companies look the most promising. Got any suggestions on companies by any chance?

GW pharmaceuticals is the only one I have seen on multiple lists but it is already above $100 a share and is an established company. So the beginning investor isn't going to find their fortune their unless they invest BIG time but it is still not bad as a longterm kind of growth savings account.

Stevia Corp has been referred to as the wild card by one list. Oh I'll just post the link I have and that is a good place to start.

Hot pot stocks to watch

Just remember, the more people who buy the stock you are invested in makes it go up in price....Just sayin

No need to hide secrets from your ATS brothers and sisters! Thanks for the linky poo!

a reply to: TrappedPrincess

Yeah, I've heard of GW Pharmaceuticals before, so I'm not surprised that you say that about them. Also, thanks for the link. I'm serious, I really DO want to invest in this industry.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Of course they will limit it... because they don't want proof saying that Marijuana is safe and you can't die from it. Unlike their loved alcohol and tobacco.....