phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES APRIL 21ST– APRIL 27TH, 2022 State Licensed Dispensaries & Doctor Certifications | CANNABIS | Beltway Buds Two marijuana research bills advance in Congress. BY NINA MARKOWITZ C ongress is considering two acts designed to make mari- juana and cannabidiol (CBD) more accessible to medical researchers. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Medical Marijuana Research Act and the Senate’s Cannabidiol and Marihuana Research Expansion Act were approved in their chambers with bipartisan support in recent weeks. They are considered a crit- ical next step toward approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of mari- juana and marijuana-derived substances for medicinal use. Yes, you read that right. They even spell pot differently inside the Beltway. The House bill passed by 82 percent and the Senate bill by unanimous consent. All House Democrats and 126 Republicans voted in favor, while Arizona Republican Representatives Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, David Schweikert, and Debbie Lesko voted against the proposal. None of Arizona’s GOP delegation responded to requests for comment. Both bills require the government to ensure there is enough marijuana available for research purposes, but how that’s achieved is not exactly clear. They also mandate marijuana researchers register with the government and report their find- ings back to Congress. The bills have marked differences. The Medical Marijuana Research Act, spon- sored by Congressman Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, would permit authorized scientists to procure mari- juana from local, state-legal dispensaries. Scientists prefer this as it allows access to the same product that is being consumed by the public. The bill also creates the possibility for marijuana to be transferred to a different schedule, should the research support it. Right now, the U.S. government catego- rizes marijuana as a Schedule I substance, defined as having a high potential for abuse and no “currently accepted” medical use. Schedule I also includes heroin, peyote, and LSD. The Cannabidiol and Marihuana Research Expansion Act, sponsored by California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, is less lenient. “When people hear, ‘This is a research bill, it is going to open up research,’ they’re Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons Arizona’s entire Republican Congressional delegation, including U.S Representative Debbie Lesko, opposed a bipartisan cannabis-research bill. just like, ‘great,’” said Shane Pennington, one of the lawyers who represented weed researcher Dr. Sue Sisley in her lawsuit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Department of Justice. “I think this act will make research harder, not easier, in several ways,” he said. Pennington calls out the Senate’s bill for requiring CBD researchers to register with the U.S. Attorney General, even though CBD isn’t a controlled substance and isn’t presently bound by this require- ment. And unlike the House bill, the Senate bill limits researchers to marijuana grown from FDA-licensed producers. Such provisions add red tape even as the bill purports to do the opposite. For any aspects of either bill to move forward, committee members from both Congressional chambers must first recon- cile the differences between the two and produce a single piece of legislation. Mike Robinette, state director of Arizona’s National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), is hopeful that a compromise between the two bills can be reached, one that ideally permits researchers to get good weed from the local, legal dispensaries. “Both bills would help to eliminate the historical blocking and interference by the FDA into the research and understanding of cannabis as a plant. As a consumer advo- cacy organization, we fully support strong and robust research into cannabis and its effects on people,” Robinette said in a statement released to Phoenix New Times. Research is also welcomed by Raul Molina, the chief operations officer at Mint Dispensary, Arizona’s largest medical marijuana facility. “The biggest thing this is going to do for Arizonans, for the industry as a whole, is it is going to legitimize it,” he said. “I think it’s going to be incredible for the industry.” Molina laments that without sufficient science and government >> p 45 41
