WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA-50) and Dave Joyce (R-OH-14) introduced the bipartisan Cannabis Research Act, legislation to provide legal certainty to researchers studying state-legal cannabis products, create a National Cannabis Research Agenda, and fund 10 Centers of Excellence in Cannabis Research. A comprehensive agenda for federal cannabis research will help empower America’s best and brightest researchers to work together, not in a vacuum, to solve unanswered scientific questions about cannabis use.

As states continue to legalize cannabis use, we still lack sufficient data on its safety, efficacy, potential therapeutic value, and long-term effects of use. Additionally, due to varying state laws on cannabis legality, research institutions remain uncertain about how to legally conduct this research while cannabis remains criminalized at the federal level. Despite the recently proposed rule to reschedule marijuana, concerns remain about the ability of researchers to legally study dispensary cannabis.

“In California, you can walk into a store and legally purchase a marijuana gummy to help you fall asleep, but a researcher can’t buy that same gummy to analyze its short- and long-term benefits and risks,” said Rep. Peters. “Our Cannabis Research Act clears the path for scientists, including those at the world-renowned UC San Diego Center for Medical Cannabis Research, to study cannabis without fear of prosecution. Our bill also importantly sets a national agenda to ensure all the Centers of Excellence are coordinated in their research.”

“Federal bureaucracy continues to create unnecessary obstacles for both researchers and growers in the cannabis industry,” said Rep Joyce. “To benefit patients nationwide and maintain America’s leadership in global medical research, we must eliminate outdated federal policies that hinder legitimate medical research. This bipartisan bill does just that by streamlining the lawful study of cannabis, supporting safer communities across the country.”

We are grateful to Representative Peters and Representative Joyce for introducing the Cannabis Research Act,” said Igor Grant MD, Director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UCSD. “The national research agenda proposed under this bill, and the creation of multidisciplinary Centers of Excellence in Cannabis Research, will fill critical gaps in our knowledge of the health benefits and risks of cannabis use. Importantly, the Act for the first time will allow such Centers to focus on products consumers are actually using, so we can understand the different effects of various product types, compositions, and methods of intake.”

“Allowing researchers to more easily study the effects of cannabis products that human beings are actually using is absolutely vital to developing good public policy,” said Morgan Fox, Political Director of NORML. “By giving institutions of higher learning the ability to establish research programs that can access products available in legal state markets with minimal red tape, Congress can provide policymakers with the information and tools they need to make laws and regulations that effectively promote individual and public health. NORML is proud to support this legislation again and we urge members of Congress to expedite its passage without delay.”

Full text of the legislation here.

Background:

As more states legalize cannabis use, we lack sufficient data on its safety, efficacy, potential therapeutic value, long-term effects of use, and other critical factors. There is no concerted federal effort to gather robust data on the widespread effects of cannabis use. Additionally, due to the patchwork of state laws on cannabis legality, research institutions are uncertain about how to legally conduct this research while cannabis remains criminalized at the federal level.

The bill will amend the Public Health Service Act by:

• Creating a National Cannabis Research Agenda;
• Directing agencies to collect data on health outcomes, health care utilization, and other metrics to understand current cannabis use;
• Establishing ten Centers of Excellence in Cannabis Research to conduct further research related to cannabis and its biomedical, behavioral, and social impacts; and
• Shielding researchers at these Centers of Excellence from legal sanctions for acquiring and testing state-legal cannabis products in order to further the goals of the National Cannabis Research Agenda.

Goals of the legislation include:

• Facilitating robust data collection on the effects, prevalence, and impact of cannabis use;
• Supporting the research necessary to establish clinically appropriate dosing guidelines for medical cannabis prescription, develop meaningful field sobriety tests for law enforcement agencies, and better inform consumers about products on the market; and
• Reflecting Americans’ opinions that we should seek a more complete understanding of how cannabis impacts the human brain and how widespread cannabis use will impact public health.

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