U.S. to Import Canadian Cannabis for California Study

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]U[/dropcap]nited States officials have approved Canadian cannabis to be imported for use in a California study, The Associated Press reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers will be importing cannabis capsules from cannabis company, Tilray Inc., which is based in British Columbia, Canada. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the UCSD Center for Medicinal Research.

The federal prohibition of cannabis makes it difficult for researchers to obtain cannabis for clinical trials. This is because it is still required that all cannabis grown for research purposes must come through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is grown exclusively at University of Mississippi. Therefore, this was a rare but celebrated announcement for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to approve the importation of cannabis from Canada.

Despite future plans for encapsulated cannabis offerings, University of Mississippi does not currently offer cannabis capsules for research purposes, according to Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences Assistant Director Don Stanford. It is common for the NIDA to provide researchers with cannabis flower or cannabis oil that can be smoked or vaporized.

It is not clear how many times the DEA has approved the import of foreign cannabis for research purposes. However, according to The Associated Press, DEA spokeswoman Katherine Pfaff did make a statement on this recent decision. “It is done. There are definitely situations where, when there’s no source in the U.S., a registrant can import a cannabis-derived drug from another country,” Pfaff said.

UCSD researchers will be using the imported CBD and THC capsules to study their effectiveness in treating tremors, those of which predominantly affect elderly people over the age of 65. Researchers explained that encapsulated cannabis was ideal for this study, because it allows them to monitor the dosage effectively, in comparison to the varying dosing that can happen when vaping or smoking cannabis. Dr. Fatta Nahab, the study’s principal investigator and a UCSD neurologist, also shared that researchers were concerned that older participants might be deterred from the study if they had to inhale cannabis. This led them to petition for the importation of Canadian cannabis.

Researchers intend to include up to 20 participants in the tremor study. The study has the potential to help millions of people living with tremors. “Essential tremor is 10 times more common than Parkinson’s and yet nobody really knows about essential tremor,” Nahab said. “That we’re finally getting to a potential therapeutic option in an area that is untapped is a big deal.”