HHS Approves Marijuana Study for Veterans With PTSD

In a surprising move, the feds have
approved a University of Arizona study of medical marijuana for
treating veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since
marijuana is still federally classified as a Schedule I controlled
substance—a “dangerous drug” with “no accepted medical use”—medical
research on marijuana in America is generally illegal.

This is one of just two times the federal government has
approved clinical trials involving medical marijuana in the past
decade. A March 12, 2014, letter from
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cleared the
study’s funder, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies (MAPS), to buy medical marijuana from the one
federally-sanctioned research farm in the U.S. 

“MAPS has been working for over 22 years to start marijuana drug
development research, and this is the first time we’ve been granted
permission to purchase marijuana from NIDA,” the group said in a

statement. The study must still be approved by the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA), but MAPS says its “optimistic”
the DEA will approve the study in a timely
manner. 

The HHS decision “surprised marijuana advocates who have
struggled for decades to secure federal approval for research into
the drug’s medical uses,” Associated Press reports.
Researchers, advocates, and general folks for sensible drug policy
hope it’s a signal that federal attitudes toward drug research are
starting to shift.

So far, it’s been a good month all around for drug research. In
early March, The Journal of Nervous and Mental
Disease published results from
the first study in four decades to examine LSD’s
therapeutic potential in humans.