DEA Selects Seventh Cannabis Cultivation License for Research Purposes

Maine-based Maridose LLC announced on Aug. 19 that it has officially received a federal cultivation license from both the United States Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The company is one of only seven in the country approved by the DEA as a “bulk marijuana producer.”

“We are extremely pleased to receive this license from the DEA to manufacture and sell cannabis for research purposes, this is a huge step forward for the science and future of cannabis,” said Maridose Founder Richard Shain.

Historically, the only institution legally allowed to make cannabis available to researchers was the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Development of Natural Products when it received the country’s only cultivation registration from the DEA in 1968. This monopoly ended in May 2021. The DEA announced that it would eventually issue cultivation licenses to third-party applicants. “Subject to final approval, DEA has determined, based on the information currently available, that a number of producers’ applications to grow marijuana for research purposes in the United States are in compliance with applicable legal norms and relevant laws. DEA has therefore provided these manufacturers with a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) as the next step in the approval process.”

Also in May 2021, the Scottsdale Research Institute in Arizona and the Biopharmaceutical Research Co. in California received approval. California-based Royal Emerald Pharmaceuticals received approval in December 2021, followed by Pennsylvania-based Groff North America in March 2022 and California-based Irvine Labs in April 2022. And now in August, Maridose is the seventh applicant to be approved to date became .

“Our DEA registration number RM063095 is the culmination of over five years of working with the DEA and enables Maridose to legally sell a variety of cannabis products through the DEA to researchers and DEA-licensed pharmaceutical companies in the United States and internationally,” he said sham “The DEA has indicated that it will only be exhibiting a very limited number of these and Maridose is proud to be one of the first companies to be licensed. Cannabis companies operating in states with legal cannabis cannot ship across state lines and face legal risk as cannabis remains a Schedule 1 substance at the federal level. Maridose is able to legally supply our customers without these risks and restrictions.”

As of August 22, the Federal Register lists many applications for the coveted mass manufacturer license.

dr Sue Sisley, President of the Scottsdale Research Institute, has long been recognized as a leader in cannabis studies. Although the institute received approval from the DEA in May 2021, it was still not safe from the ongoing problem of banking in the cannabis industry. In October 2021, Sisley took to Twitter and explained how Bank of America closed the Scottsdale Research Institute’s accounts without notice. “Bank of America is closing the account of a federally licensed cannabis researcher. SRI is conducting FDA-approved controlled trials evaluating cannabis as a drug for the treatment of pain/PTSD in military veterans and terminally ill patients TRAGICALLY ending our research @BankofAmerica,” she wrote on October 12, 2021.

The SAFE Banking Act would be a welcome improvement in the cannabis industry’s ongoing woes, but many believe it’s not enough to fully protect cannabis companies.

Cannabis research continues to gather momentum, with Louisiana University recently receiving approval to research cannabis. It is currently one of only two schools selected in the state to date. In June, the government researchers spoke about their work treating military veterans with MDMA and psilocybin.

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