According to an article published on June 10 by Marijuana Moment’s Kyle Jaeger, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a law that would permit scientists to use cannabis from an expanded array of sources, namely, state-legal dispensaries. Currently, Jaeger explained, researchers may only use marijuana produced from a sole, federally authorized source, the University of Mississippi.
The new provision is reportedly embedded within a largely unrelated transit bill, the INVEST in America Act. According to the Department of Transportation, the $547 billion surface transportation bill is gaining traction, and will soon be considered by the House’s entire membership.
Jaeger’s article stated that the bill would call upon federal agencies to make recommendations on how to give researchers access to state-cultivated marijuana. It would also direct the agencies to consider the establishment of a “national clearinghouse” charged with collecting and distributing samples and strains of marijuana for scientific purposes.
In addition, the INVEST in America Act would grant permission to conduct impaired driving research using the marijuana products that consumers actually purchase and use. Too, it would permit the interstate distribution of cannabis to scientists in jurisdictions that have not yet legalized the substance, Marijuana Moment reported.
Another section would reportedly require that marijuana-legal states, and those states alone, contemplate educational programs about the dangers of driving under the influence of cannabis. According to Jaeger’s article, activists contest that provision because it focuses solely on legalized jurisdictions though marijuana-impaired motor vehicle operation takes place regardless of the substance’s legal status, they argue.
Marijuana Moment noted that this is not the bill’s first trip to the House floor. An earlier version of the measure reportedly cleared the House last congressional session with identical marijuana provisions but failed to gain the support of the Republican-controlled Senate.
Since then, the article noted, steps have been taken to ease Drug Enforcement Agency restrictions on cannabis research. Most prominently, Jaeger wrote, the federal agency recently notified several companies that it was making progress on their applications to become federally authorized sources. This, the article explained, is both a milestone for cannabis research prospects and demarcates one of the first marijuana-related actions taken by President Biden.
