A bill awaiting California Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature will be the first in the nation to draw a distinction between cannabis cultivation that is regulated under state law, and that which is newly authorized by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Until a few months ago, only one location ever had federal approval to cultivate cannabis for research, and it was at the University of Mississippi. But in 2016, the DEA announced that it would move to register additional growers, and began to accept applications. The rollout was slowed by several starts and stops, which Cannabis Wire covered, but then in May the DEA announced that it was “nearing the end of its review of certain marijuana grower applications, thereby allowing it to soon register additional entities authorized to produce marijuana for research purposes.” One of the first companies to announce that it had been awarded a license, just days later, is Biopharmaceutical Research Company, which is based in California. The DEA would not confirm to Cannabis Wire how many applicants have received preliminary or final approval, but at least two other companies have made such approvals public: the Scottsdale Research Institute, based in Arizona, and Bright Green Corp., based in New Mexico, which received a direct shout out from the state’s governor. Cannabis is legal for both medical and adult-use in each of these states, but no other legislature has yet passed a bill like AB 1305, introduced by California Assemblymember Tom Lackey. In short, the exemption from the state law that is outlined by the bill would “clear up the catch-22 that DEA-permitted researchers are in,” Mark Isidro, Lackey’s legislative director, told Cannabis Wire, because “the federal government does not recognize any state cannabis system as legitimate.”
Nushin Rashidian, Cannabis Wire, 08/30/2021 20:00:00