DEA is Looking for Cannabis Growers to Aid in Research

For over 40 years already, the University of Mississippi has had the only license with the federal government to grow cannabis for research. But the DEA has recently announced that it is in need of more entities to help in this research. In an effort to fast-track the very slow-moving progress of the FDA’s approval of cannabis as medicine, the FDA needs federally sanctioned research on the plant and its properties.

In-line with this desire, the DEA is on top of this effort much more than the FDA, but it needs the research to back up any decisions. Almost a dozen agricultural schools, including those with industrial hemp programs have been contacted in this effort, in hopes to possibly grow cannabis for government research.

Surprisingly, many of the institutions were not interested in helping. Not interested, said Cornell University, the University of Kentucky and Virginia Tech. Ditto, said Michigan State University, the University of Vermont and Western Kentucky University.

No plans, said University of California, Davis and University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Same with Colorado State University, Oregon State University and Purdue University.

“We are very boring that way,” Janna Beckerman, a plant pathologist who researches hemp at Purdue, wrote in an email. The process of application is very involved, however, so many institutions may be reluctant of the process as a whole, and the investment.

To register with the agency, applicants will need to show that they will have security measures in place to protect the plants and must be willing to comply with a slew of other requirements. Depending on the scale of the research at the institution, growers will likely have to make significant investments to get it up and running—possibly millions of dollars in expenditures for these institutions.

But, our DEA correspondent Barbara Correno explained to us that it doesn’t have to be a university that’s applying. Independent growers who operate in states where medical and recreational cannabis is legal are viable applicants. Some recreational or medicinal cultivators have an expertise in running a large-scale facility, with meticulous practices, attention to legal details and security measures in place, which would be ideal for the federal agencies looking for research-based grows.

However, the DEA won’t accept applications from those who have violated the Controlled Substances Act, which may deter people, companies or institutions from trying to apply.

“I think everybody is just thinking about how to approach this,” said Dr. Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego. “What will it really take to get one of these DEA licenses?”

Grant said he would consider talking with other universities and agencies in California to see if it was worth the effort to get a cultivation operation in the state, but beyond that had not heard of groups intending to apply, according to Fox News.

The DEA’s application process is open, but the agency has set no deadline to select the growers.