One of the most important drug agencies in the country, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), wants to research cannabis regulations. The agency put out a notice on February 18 explaining that it wants to look into the effects of changing cannabis laws around the country. The agency has expressed interest in this in the past.

“Policies around… cannabis products (including whole plant cannabis and cannabis constituent compounds) in the United States (and globally)
continue to evolve, and far outpace the knowledge needed to determine the public health impacts of these changes,” the agency wrote. “Growing numbers of states have loosened restrictions on cannabis, including those on sales and use, by passing medical marijuana laws or by making cannabis legal for adult recreational use, and in increasing numbers, states have done both.”

The agency says there is a “widening research gap” and that many questions and concerns remain. This notice is essentially telling researchers to
submit proposals that would meet its needs so they can receive grants for their research.

Morgan Fox, political director at NORML, told Cannabis News Box that NIDA has a history of only allowing researchers to look at the negative effects of cannabis use. He said that’s finally starting to change.

“Thankfully, that has changed in recent years as the evidence of the potential benefits of cannabis, the harms caused by prohibition, and the
successes of legal regulatory programs have become more evident, and the agency should be lauded for following the science in the right direction,” Fox said. “However, I think there is still probably a lot of work to be done there.”

Fox said that there is a lot of good research being done despite the barrier that researchers who want to study cannabis face. That said, there
are still too many barriers, and some cannabis research that could be getting done isn’t happening.

“Removing federal barriers to research and allowing scientists to use samples of cannabis products that are available to consumers in state-legal
markets would be a great start, as well as fast-tracking the study applications currently under consideration,” Fox said. “ Ideally, it would
be great to see dedicated federal support and funding streams.”

There aren’t currently any indicators that federal agencies or Congress will be getting rid of those barriers, but there is more support for medical cannabis in Congress than social use cannabis.