For decades, researchers in the United States had only access to hemp grown at a factory in Oxford, Mississippi. A number of other approved growers have been added in recent years.
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For decades, researchers in the United States had only access to hemp grown at a factory in Oxford, Mississippi. A number of other approved growers have been added in recent years.
Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
As the Biden administration moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, scientists say the change will lift some restrictions on research into the drug.
But they said the change would not lift all restrictions, reduce the drug’s potential risks or help users better understand what those risks are.
Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, which is defined as a substance that has no recognized medical use and a high potential for abuse. The Biden administration this week proposed classifying marijuana as a Schedule III controlled substance, a category that recognizes marijuana has some medical benefits.
The current Schedule I status imposes many regulations and restrictions on scientists’ ability to study the weed, although state laws have made it increasingly accessible to the public.
“Cannabis, as a Schedule I substance, is associated with a lot of very, very strict regulations,” said Staci Gruber, a neuroscientist at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “For example, for storage, safety, and reporting All these things, you have very strict requirements.”
The requirements are set by the Food and Drug Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration, institutional review boards and local authorities, she said. Scientists interested in studying the drug must also register with the DEA and obtain state and federal licenses to conduct research on the drug.
“This is a cumbersome process, and one that certainly deters many young and dedicated researchers from pursuing [this kind of work],” Gruber said.
Reclassify the drug to Schedule III, putting it in the same category as ketamine and Tylenol and codeine. Substances of this type have accepted medical use in the United States and have less potential for abuse than substances in higher categories, which may lead to low to moderate dependence on the drug.
This reclassification is “a very, very big paradigm shift,” Gruber said. “I think it’s going to have a huge trickle-down effect in terms of perspectives and attitudes about looking at the actual differences between Schedule III and Schedule I substances.”
Gruber welcomed the change, especially because of what it means for younger colleagues. “It will be easier for researchers who want to get into this field. You don’t have to have a Schedule I license,” she said. “This is a big deal.”
The rescheduling of cannabis will also “translate into more research on the benefits and risks of cannabis for treating disease,” Dr. Andrew Mundt wrote in an email. He is associate director of Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety and an emergency physician and toxicologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
“This will also help improve the quality of research, as more researchers will be able to contribute,” he added.
Senate Democrats held a press conference Wednesday to propose new, less stringent marijuana laws. From left, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, New York Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Oregonian Ron Wyden.
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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
Senate Democrats held a press conference Wednesday to propose new, less stringent marijuana laws. From left, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, New York Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Oregonian Ron Wyden.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
But Gruber said the change in classification would not significantly increase the number of drug sources for researchers. For 50 years, researchers have had access to marijuana from only one source — a facility at the University of Mississippi. Then, in 2021, the DEA began adding more companies to its list of approved sources for medical and scientific research.
While she anticipates that more sources will be added in time, she and many researchers she knows have not yet benefited from the recently added sources because most sources have limited offerings.
“We haven’t seen researchers (cannabis researchers, clinical researchers) have the ability to study products that our patients, recreational consumers or adult consumers are actually using,” she added. “It’s still impossible.”
Little information is currently known about the ingredients of cannabis products on the market. Some studies show that levels of the main narcotic THC in marijuana sold to consumers today are significantly higher than they were a few decades ago, and high THC levels are known to cause higher levels of intoxication. Big health risk.
Monte warned that the reclassification itself does not mean cannabis is free of health risks. Monte and his colleagues documented some of the risks in Colorado by studying people who showed up at emergency rooms after taking marijuana. Worrying psychiatric symptoms such as intoxication and cyclic vomiting (cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome), as well as psychosis, are among the top issues leading to hospital admissions for some cannabis users.
Marijuana research has lacked monitoring of such effects for decades, he said. Rescheduling dosing would not fill “a gap in risk monitoring,” he wrote.
