Harris sponsors medical marijuana research bill

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.-1, has sponsored the Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2017, intended to remove some of the hurdles to breakthroughs involving the drug.

“As a physician who has conducted NIH-sponsored research, I cannot stress enough how critical this legislation is to the scientific community. Our drug policy was never intended to act as an impediment to conducting legitimate medical research, said Harris, r-Md.-1st. "If we are going to label marijuana as medicine, we need to conduct the same rigorous scientific research on efficacy and safety that every other FDA-approved treatment undergoes."

"This legislation will facilitate that research by removing the unnecessary administrative barriers that deter qualified researchers from thoroughly studying medical marijuana."

The measure was co-sponsored by Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.-3rd, H. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.-9th, and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.-19th.

The bill creates a new, less cumbersome registration process specifically for marijuana research, reducing approval wait times, costly security measures and additional, unnecessary layers of protocol review.

It further reforms to both production and distribution regulations for marijuana, so once a scientist is approved to conduct medical marijuana research, the plant is easier to obtain. To this end, the bill also allows for the private manufacturing and distribution of marijuana solely for research purposes.