A new report from the Biden administration recommends legislation that would help overcome legal hurdles that hinder marijuana research — the same legislation that Senate Democrats are blocking and that most Democrats opposed when the House passed it last year. The report, prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services, says the Halt Fentanyl Act would permanently classify fentanyl and related substances as Schedule I drugs — a classification that would subject them to increased regulation — and make it easier for researchers to study any Schedule I drug, including marijuana. The bill’s research provisions, the report says, are based on input from federal agencies and aim to make it easier for researchers to get clearance to study the substances and to loosen rules governing how research is conducted. For example, the bill would: — No longer require separate Schedule I research registrations for every Schedule I researcher at an institution — Allow a single Schedule I research registration for research at multiple locations under the control of a single institution within the same city or county — No longer require Schedule I research registrants to obtain a registration to manufacture small quantities of material coincident to research, such as creating dosage formulations needed to administer cannabis and other drug products to study participants But those provisions didn’t convince most Democrats when the bill came up for a vote in the House last year. It split the party, with 132 voting nay, and 74 yea, but passed with nearly unanimous GOP support. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, criticized the bill alongside a coalition of advocacy groups as a law-and-order approach to combating drug addiction that’s failed and lambasted Republicans for not accepting amendments that would have provided for quick descheduling of any fentanyl-related substances found to have medical applications. Among those voting against the bill was Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), an advocate of medical marijuana, who sponsored the 2022 legislation that required HHS to produce the report. In a statement, he said the report showed that the best way to research marijuana is to remove it from Schedule I, as the Biden administration has also proposed. “This report validates what we have known for years: Reclassifying cannabis is paramount to effectively researching it,” he said.
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