Just How Much Scientific Freedom Will The “Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act” Actually Give Researchers?

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed bill H.R.8454, the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act by a resounding vote of 325-95 to much fanfare.?In a rare moment, bipartisan voices spoke in unison decrying that the time was long overdue for this type of medical marijuana research to be permissible.?

“For too long, the federal government has stood in the way of science and progress, creating barriers for researchers obtaining resources and approval to study cannabis,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) in a press release. “This bipartisan, bicameral legislation is an important first step to changing that.”

Next, the bill moves to the Senate where it’s expected to pass. From there it will appear at President Biden’s desk for signature, where he’s expected to sign it.?

The Bill’s Limitations

The law introduces a medical research application program that seeks to facilitate cannabis-specific scientific research and potential drug development. Originally, the legislation claimed it would substantially expand scientific research on marijuana, including, allowing scientists to study products from dispensaries. But that provision was pulled back when it was thought to be too controversial to usher in a 60% majority Senate vote.?

The current bill eliminates researchers from obtaining any marijuana products from any state dispensaries or growers, allowing them only to obtain products for research from DEA approved Schedule I registrants.

But allowing scientists to access products from select registrants that have passed through an archaic system doesn’t exactly put the United States on the same medical marijuana research and development trajectory as Israel.

Israeli Marijuana Research

Israel is at the center of advancement in cannabis research because of its comprehensive ecosystem of financiers, farmers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and supporting pharma and government policies.

Israeli authorities are liberal when it comes to research, as growers work hand-in-hand with scientific institutions in clinical trials and development of strains that treat a variety of illnesses and disorders.

"Cannabinoid research was and still is viewed positively by government committees," Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, whose landmark studies in the 1960s paved the way for cannabis research by isolating and synthesizing THC said, adding that the country’s law enforcement was not involved in study approval.

Unlike the newly proposed bill, where cannabis strains will be obtained from a handful of DEA registrants, in Israel, Hebrew University holds a rich IP bank of cannabis patents having synthesized dozens of versions of THC, and cultivars are regularly imported and exported into the country for study.

Scientific Freedom

So where does this latest U.S. bill fall short on granting medical marijuana researchers greater access to products and materials to work with, and more authority to study compounds classified as illicit drugs?

First, the law doesn’t reschedule or deschedule cannabis from a Schedule I drug. Cannabis will remain in the company of opioids and other addictive substances deemed? to have no medical use in treatment in the United States.?

Limitations on access to strains means limitations to progress. There are over a trillion possible combinations of cannabinoids and terpenes that could be derived from the cannabis plant, and without rescheduling or de-scheduling the plant to provide greater access to its variations, the proposed bill limits what American scientists can accomplish in the lab.?

Next, the law adds yet another layer of bureaucracy to an already desperately broken system. The Act requires the US Attorney General to solicit applications from those seeking to cultivate cannabis for research or potential drug development purposes and provides a timeline for the AG to approve those applicants.

While that timeline is advertised as being up to 90-days, anything and everything cannabis and government related has been historically slow.?

Scientists seeking to analyze and work with cannabis have expressed that "it takes years for the DEA to approve their research protocols and that the quality of cannabis provided by the University of Mississippi cultivation program is substandard, inferior, and not representative of available products in state-legal markets," a recent Benzinga article stated.?

Third, the level of marijuana research capital efficiency in Israel is higher than the United States.?

"What you would spend half a million dollars on in the U.S. you could easily get for 125 or 150 thousand dollars in Israel and it's going to be done efficiently and on time,” Seth Yakatan, CEO of California-based Kalytera Therapeutics is noted as saying. “The quality of research is world-class and the arbitrage of value is good."

The Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, should it travel all the way through the channels and be signed into law, is a monumental step for our country.?

Still, with limited research scope on one hand, high capital outlays, and historically hindering bureaucratic hurdles, it’s likely to still leave us far behind countries like Israel, where advanced cannabis research has led the way for decades.?