The DEA wants you to grow a lot more cannabis and mushrooms for research in 2022

Global interest in marijuana is not waning anytime soon. This has instilled confidence in the hearts of marijuana enthusiasts that it could lead to more research and possibly federal legalization. Well, hopes for legalization come from news like this: DEA wants more cannabis and psychedelics for research in the coming year 2022.

The DEA calls for a mass increase in production

The Drug Enforcement Administration has officially called for a dramatic increase in research-based psychedelics and cannabis production for 2022. In a report from Marijuana Moment, the federal agency will express its interest in an announcement scheduled for Monday on the subject of interest in the cannabis industry.

The DEA increased its psilocybin and cannabis quota for 2021 back in September 2021, but is now calling for an even larger amount of research-grade cannabis with a wider range of psychedelics for production in 2022.

A plan to double the number of cannabis extracts, psilocin and psilocybin, quadruple mescaline and quintuple DMT is in the works, and the most prominent is MDMA. The DEA has proposed a massive 6,300% increase in drug production from 50 grams in 2021 to 3,200 grams in 2022. The therapeutic potential of the drug is being further explored.

While LSD will have a 1.150% increase, the equivalent of up to 500 grams of strong psychedelic, under this new DEA proposal, cannabis will see a 60% increase to up to 3.2 million grams in 2022 from its initial 2 million grams received in 2020.

The reason for the increase in research-based cannabis and psychedelics

In its registry release, the DEA noted that it had received and approved new applications for organizations to “grow, synthesize, extract and manufacture dosage forms containing List 1 hallucinogenic substances for clinical study purposes”.

The DEA also claims it supports the “regulated” research on List 1 controlled substances, which it has demonstrated through its planned 2022 production increase compared to what was available in 2021.

The agency added that it was working diligently to process and approve cannabis manufacturers’ applications, as there is currently only one farm at the University of Mississippi that allows the plant to be grown for research purposes.

The increase in applications for clinical studies by the DEA is as follows:

• 3.4 Increase in methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)

• 5-methoxy-NN-dimethyltryptamine

• Dimethyltryptamine

• Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)

• marijuana

• Marijuana extract

• mescaline

• Psilocybin

• Psilocyn

• All tetrahydrocannabinols

These increases will support manufacturing activities related to the increased level of research and clinical trials with the Schedule 1 controlled substances.

A breakdown of the exact numbers for the 2021 and 2022 odds:

substance	2021 numbers	Proposed numbers for 2022
MDA	55	200
5-MeO-DMT	35	550
DMT	50	250
mescaline	25th	100
LSD	40	500
MDMA	50	3,200
Psilocyn	1,000	2,000
Psilocybin	1,500	3,000
All tetrahydrocannabinol	1,000	2,000
Marijuana extract	500,000	1,000,000
marijuana	2,000,000	3rd, 200,000

The role of the public, researchers and experts

After the notice is posted on Monday, the agency will have a 30-day comment period, which will allow people to comment on the new quotas. It’s also interesting to note that these changes are due to the public interest in marijuana.

If people aren’t interested in researching cannabis, there is no need to increase the quotas set in 2021. The DEA agrees that it cannot ignore the increasing “scientific and public” interest in cannabis and psychedelics, leading to more clinical trials. These clinical studies all show the therapeutic potential of cannabis that will be useful in medicine.

The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Nora Volkov, said she was encouraged by the proposed increase in the production quota. She also claimed that studies have repeatedly shown that the benefits of psychedelics could get more people to experiment with psilocybin.

Experts, researchers, and proponents of these mushrooms are frustrated by the strict rules that classify the natural gifts as a List 1 substance. They believe that given that these substances have medicinal value in some diseases, these substances should not be classified as “dangerous”.

In August, a federal appeals court denied a motion to have the DEA reassess cannabis planning under its Controlled Substance Act. But after the verdict, a judge agreed that the agency might be forced to reconsider changing its policy. These changes may be necessary because the therapeutic value of marijuana has been misinterpreted.

In a separate petition, the Washington State Attorney General and its attorneys representing cancer patients have called on a federal appellate body to facilitate a change in policy with the DEA. The policy change is designed to enable end-of-life medical care users to have access to psilocybin in accordance with federal and state “right to try” laws. These steps by researchers and experts are intended to show the DEA that it has long been fighting a losing battle against cannabis. The time now is to give nature’s gift a chance to make a positive impact on the lives of Americans.

While there is great excitement over everything that will happen in 2022, one can only imagine the progress we would have made if we had started much earlier. Hopefully, this move will also force other states that have not legalized cannabis to reconsider their decisions and take a forward-looking stance.

Bottom line

When a federal agency like the DEA begins to increase its quota for a substance or shows such great interest in a substance, that says a lot about it. Yes, cannabis is still largely illegal at the federal level, and this should be a good reason for the DEA to avoid all talking about marijuana.

However, here we read exciting news about the possibility of increasing the amount of cannabis used for research. This shows that much more is going to happen in the cannabis industry in 2022, and the DEA is already positioning itself for that experience. The more research on marijuana, the greater the likelihood that more marijuana-based products will be made for commercial use. What a time to be a cannabis enthusiast and watch the industry blossom even further in 2022 !!