ASA in the News

By Jaime Williams MMJ Observer 

When President Barack Obama was getting into office back in 2008, he owed up to a promise that his administration would give the war on drugs a different approach. The promise has since been fulfilled with the lifting of the enduring restriction on medical marijuana research. The move has been hailed by a majority of marijuana reform advocates citing that this is victorias enough.

Having eliminated the Public Health Service review requirement, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will now be in the lead in facilitating the research into the drug. It was so hectic to carry out any research within the old policy that had been created in the 90’s.

One had to undergo laborious and bureaucratic hoops that in most cases were very difficult to get through especially for the strong-minded scholars. This will no longer happen. With the Obama Administration now in full support of the scientific research on Marijuana, there will be more advancement in the understanding of its adverse effects and potential therapeutic uses.

This is such a breakthrough and a pretty big deal, according to a spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access, Christopher Brown. However, advocates say there is still much more that needs to be done. Approval from NIDA, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Drug Enforcement Agency is required if any Scientist wants to obtain and transport large quantities of the plant from the government’s lone research depository.

This is another hurdle altogether into carrying out marijuana research. Nevertheless, with the earlier one having been removed, Riffle, director of federal policies for MPP is still hopeful that all will end well with the remaining hurdle.

The call for a change in marijuana policy has been there for years. Today, 23 states and the District of Columbia are beneficiaries of having medical marijuana legalized. That said, lawmakers are now fighting for an expansion of war veterans’ access to medical marijuana. This is because 70% of Americans have embraced the use of the plant as a healing agent, and this is what the research will attempt to prove.