About six years into my career with the NFL, a trainer told us that we would all start getting blood tests to check our liver function. We were all healthy football players, mostly in our twenties. Why did we need liver function tests?
The trainers knew the medications that soothed our aches, pains and injuries could take a toll on our internal organs, such as the liver and kidneys. There were opioids. There were also nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Some were prescription pain relievers, some over-the-counter.
American voters may be sharply polarized over many political issues of the day, but they are increasingly unified on one policy: legalizing marijuana.
Just look at the results of November’s election — every statewide measure to relax marijuana prohibition won. Arizona, Montana and New Jersey voted to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older. Medical marijuana was approved in Mississippi. South Dakota voters backed both recreational and medicinal use.
Six years after the idea was germinated, the nation’s first state-authorized medical marijuana research program is being launched in Philadelphia, state officials said. Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University announced this week that they are recruiting patients for the first of two studies.
Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf" or the "Company"), a leading vertically integrated cannabis operator in the United States, has been approved as a Clinical Registrant in Pennsylvania by the Commonwealth's Department of Health, Office of Medical Marijuana. Under this designation, the Company will be permitted to open a cultivation and processing facility and up to six dispensaries, under the Commonwealth's medical marijuana research program.
Abstract
Background
The six licensed operators in the New Jersey Medicinal Marijuana Program submit their strains of cannabis flower to a single laboratory, administered by the state’s Department of Health, for testing. The results of these tests are made available by the State on a web page for patients, allowing a study of the range of cannabinoid profiles available in the program.
A group of senators are pressing top federal drug and health agencies to provide an update on the status of efforts to increase the number of authorized marijuana manufacturers for research purposes.
A letter from the lawmakers—led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and addressed to the heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Office of National Drug Control Policy and Department of Health and Human Services—emphasizes the need to expand the supply of research-grade cannabis as more states opt to legalize the plant for medical or recreational use.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has announced it is moving forward to facilitate the expansion of U.S.-based marijuana research. After a delay that lasted years, the DEA is now moving forward to allow U.S. cultivators to grow a larger amount of research-grade cannabis domestically, but it may take a while.
The Justice Department said Monday it would move forward to expand the number of marijuana growers for federally authorized cannabis research.
The long-awaited move comes after researchers filed court papers asking a judge to compel the Drug Enforcement Administration to process the applications to grow research pot. The DEA began accepting applications to grow marijuana for federally approved research about three years ago, but the agency hasn't acted on the applications.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to explain why it has yet to respond to nearly two dozen researchers around the U.S. who applied three years ago for a DEA license to grow research cannabis.
Attorney General William Barr recently received two letters from senators that stress the importance of expanding the number of federally authorized growers of marijuana for research purposes.
Adding such facilities would not represent a violation of international treaties, one of the letters argued, while the other focuses more broadly on delays in processing applications for additional cultivators.