The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday approved a bipartisan marijuana research bill that’s meant to streamline studies into cannabis, in part by allowing scientists to access products from state-legal dispensaries. This comes days after the chamber separately approved a bill to federally legalize marijuana for the second time in history. And it also follows the Senate’s unanimous approval of a similar cannabis research bill last month. The Medical Marijuana Research Act, sponsored by the unlikely duo of pro-legalization Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and prohibitionist Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), passed the House in a 343-75 vote. “The cannabis laws in this country are broken, including those that deal with the medical research of marijuana,” Blumenauer said in a press release. “America’s growing cannabis industry operates without the benefit of a robust research program. Instead, we are outsourcing research to Israel, the United Kingdom, and Canada to our detriment.” “One example of this policy failure is our inability to effectively test for cannabis impairment. Employees are failing drug tests, not because they are impaired, but because they used recreational or medical cannabis sometime in the last month,” he said.
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 04/04/2022 19:04:00