Reclassifying Marijuana Will Make Studying It Some Easier, Scientists Say: Shots

2 weeks ago

For decades, researchers in the United States had to use only marijuana grown at a facility in Oxford, Mississippi. In recent years, several more licensed breeders have been added.

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For decades, researchers in the United States had to use only marijuana grown at a facility in Oxford, Mississippi. In recent years, several more licensed breeders have been added.

Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

As the Biden administration moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, scientists expect the change will lift some of the restrictions on research into the drug.

But the change won't lift all restrictions, they say, nor will it reduce the drug's potential risks or help users better understand those risks.

Marijuana is currently classified as Schedule I controlled substance, which is defined as a substance with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. The Biden administration this week proposed classifying cannabis as a Schedule III controlled substance, a category that recognizes it has some medical benefits.

The current Schedule I status imposes numerous regulations and restrictions on scientists studying weed, even as state laws have made it increasingly available to the public.

“As a Schedule I substance, cannabis is associated with a number of very, very restrictive regulations,” says the neuroscientist Staci Gruber at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “For example, they have very strict requirements around storage and security and reporting on all of these things.”

These requirements are set by the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Institutional Review Board and local authorities, she says. Scientists interested in researching the drug must also register with the DEA and obtain state and federal licenses to conduct research on the drug.

“It's a laborious process and it's certainly a process that has discouraged a number of young and quite dedicated researchers from pursuing (this kind of work),” Gruber says.

Reclassifying the drug to Schedule III places it in the same category as ketamine and Tylenol with codeine. Substances in this category are used medically in the United States, have a lower potential for abuse than substances in higher categories, and can result in mild to moderate dependence on the drug.

This reclassification is “a very, very big paradigm shift,” says Gruber. “I think this has a big trick-down effect in terms of perspectives and attitudes regarding the actual differences between studying Schedule III substances and Schedule I substances.”

Gruber welcomes the change, especially in view of what it means for younger colleagues. “It will be easier for researchers who want to get into the game. You don’t have to have a Schedule I license,” she says. “This is a big deal.”

Cannabis re-planning will also “lead to more research into the benefits and risks of cannabis in treating medical conditions,” he writes Dr. Andrew Monte in an email. He is deputy director of Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety and emergency physician and toxicologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

“This will also help improve the quality of research as more researchers will be able to contribute,” he adds.

Senate Democrats are holding a news conference Wednesday proposing new, less stringent marijuana laws. From left are Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

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But the change in classification will not significantly expand the number of sources for the drug for research, says Gruber. For 50 years, researchers were only allowed to use cannabis from one source – a facility at the University of Mississippi. Then, In 2021, the DEA began adding a few more companies to this list recognized sources for medical and scientific research.

While she expects more sources will be added over time, she and many of the researchers she knows have yet to take advantage of the recently added sources, as most have limited products available.

“And what we haven't seen is the opportunity for researchers – cannabis researchers, clinical researchers – to study products that our patients and our recreational or adult users are actually using,” she adds. “That remains impossible.”

Rare and mysterious vomiting illness linked to heavy marijuana use

There is very little information available about the contents of cannabis products currently available on the market. Some studies show that levels of THC, the main intoxicant, in marijuana sold to consumers today are significantly higher than they were decades ago, and that high levels of THC are known to pose a greater health risk.

And Monte points out that the reclassification itself does not mean that cannabis poses no health risks. Monte and his colleagues have documented some of these risks in Colorado by examining people who show up in the emergency room after using cannabis. Poisoning and cyclic vomiting (Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome) and alarming psychiatric symptoms like psychoses are among the top problems that land some marijuana users in the hospital.

He says monitoring of these types of effects has been lacking in cannabis research for decades. And redesigning the drug will not close this “gaping gap in risk monitoring,” he writes.