Yesterday, the US Drug Enforcement Agency announced that it plans to move cannabis from Schedule 1 (the most restrictive rules on drugs) to Schedule 3. This move means that the agency (finally!) recognizes that cannabis has medical value. It will make it much easier for scientists in the US to study the potential therapeutic benefits from formulations that include THC, and may open the door to the development of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals that can be prescribed by physicians. This op-ed goes into more details about the likely impact on medical cannabis research.
It will still take some time, probably several months, for the proposed new rule to work its way through the process to become official. And it is not legalization--the state-run medical and recreational cannabis programs will still be viewed as illegal by the federal government. Still, this is great news!
It has been more than 10 months since my last post, and I apologize for the silence. Other parts of my life have taken priority over this work. But I can report that in January we published the paper describing the research that Hinanit talked about at the CannMed conference last spring (see the previous post for a link to her talk). And Hinanit and her lab are continuing to pursue new research angles, despite the violence and political challenges in Israel.
I hope to start posting more regularly. In the meantime, let's celebrate this victory--Michelle would be thrilled!