The state of Washington has announced that it will bypass federal bans by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on marijuana, and conduct scientific research, in order to fully explore the efficacy of the plant.
Currently, recreational marijuana is legal across Washington. The initiative by Washington state officials to legalize recreational marijuana was massively approved by voters in 2011. Since that period, the plant has been bringing enormous economic benefits to the state. This has made the plant an important commodity in the state, with many people calling for the plant to be fully legalized.
Apart from Washington, some states have also legalized marijuana for medical and/or recreational purposes. However, these states do so in clear violation of federal law. This is because drugs on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) list include heroin, LSD, marijuana and others. These drugs are deemed to have no medical use, therefore, possessing them is illegal under the country’s federal law.
On August 11, 2016 the DEA turned down two petitions. One was from the governors of Rhode Island and Washington, and the other from a resident of New Mexico, requesting that marijuana be removed from Schedule I of the CSA. The removal from schedule I would have ensured that official scientific research is carried on the plant, across the United States.
This arrogant behavior by the DEA has angered Washington state officials who are now saying that the state will back scientific research on marijuana, despite the federal ban.
According to The News Tribune, Washington has finalized a new marijuana research license, allowing laboratories in the state to grow the plant for scientific study. The Tribune further adds that state officials expect to start accepting applications for the new license by January, 2017.
Supporters of this new license, including senior politicians, said the measure taken by the state will provide new evidence of marijuana’s effectiveness as a medical treatment, and eventually force the DEA to backtrack on its arrogant stance on the plant.
Senator Ann Rivers representing Washington’s 18th Legislative District sponsored the bill this year to move the state’s marijuana research license system forward. She was quoted as saying: “The importance of it really hit home when the DEA decided not to reschedule medical marijuana because, they said, ‘we just don’t have enough research. We need some research institutions to come up with great information that we as legislators can use as we create policy.”
The Executive Director of the Cannabis Law & Policy Project at the University Of Washington School Of Law, Sam Méndez said it is surprising that the DEA officials want scientific proof of marijuana’s efficacy, but at the same time, are not allowing research to be conducted on the plant.
“It’s been sort of a chicken-and-egg story, where the DEA and the federal government say marijuana is a Schedule 1 narcotic because there is not sufficient evidence to suggest there is a medical use for it. It is very difficult for people to produce research on it, which leads to there not being as much research out there as there should be,” he said
Previously, under Washington state law, only three types of licenses were available on marijuana: producer, processor and retailer. Due to the new license that the state is hoping to issue, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) has set up a scientific review panel to scrutinize those who will be applying for the permits to carry out research on the plant.
The scientific review panel is made up of officials from Washington State University and the University of Washington. The panel will be responsible for the evaluation of the quality of proposed research projects, as well as whether applicants have the expertise and facilities to carry out the work.
Spokesman for the LCB, Brian Smith said the LCB is expected to start soliciting applications at the start of January 2017, adding that the new license will put Washington in a good position to become a marijuana-researching pioneer.
Marijuana use has surged dramatically in the United States, in recent years. Recently, a new poll by Gallup revealed that the percentage of American adults who smoke marijuana has nearly doubled in three years. According to the Gallup poll published on August 8, 2016 among the American adults who participated in the survey, one in eight – representing 13% of the population of the respondents used in the poll – reported current marijuana use. In 2013, the same Gallup poll revealed that 7% of American adults smoke marijuana. This means the figure nearly doubled within the last three years, since the first study was conducted.
According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health in the United States, Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the country. Also, a 2015 report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that the rate of current marijuana use in the United States had risen from 4.1% in 2001-02 to 9.5% in 2012-13.
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