A rare bipartisan bill designed to reclassify marijuana so that national laboratories could conduct credible research on its safety and efficacy as a medical treatment died a quiet death in the U.S. House of Representatives last week. [Cannabis Business Times editorial addition: the bill being referred to is H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act.] While Republicans have supported state-level marijuana programs to exist, they have not been quite as supportive of efforts designed to advance national policy on the legalization of medical marijuana.
The amendment to a bill scheduled for debate this week would have encouraged the National Institutes of Health and the Drug Enforcement Administration to work together to permit studies of the benefits and risk of marijuana to treat cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other conditions. A growing body of research suggests that the drug could be beneficial in treating many of these conditions.
