The look on people’s faces when I tell them that there is a federal marijuana program is priceless, assuming that they have never heard of it before. Since 1968, the University of Mississippi has grown marijuana for federal researchers, and since 1976 has supplied some of it to patients in the ‘Compassionate IND program’. Currently there are only four patients in the program. I’ve personally met two of them, one of which lives in my home state of Oregon.
For decades the program has pretty much only focused on high THC, low CBD strains. But according to Leaf Science, the program has recently starting growing other strains:
According to Dr. Elsohly, they have now successfully cultivated a second variety of marijuana containing equal amounts of CBD and THC. Later this year, he hopes to grow a high-CBD, low-THC variety, much like the strain used to make ’Charlotte’s Web’ oil. ”With all the publicity going on right now, I’m sure somebody is going to request that,” he says, according to Leaf Science.
CBD has seen a huge increase in interest from politicians and the mainstream media lately. However, to long time medical marijuana supporters it’s a slippery slope. As one person explained it to me on Twitter, CBD-only medical marijuana programs give politicians an out, in that they can say they have dealt with the medical marijuana issue, yet have only legalized safe access to one cannabinoid which only helps a very small group of patients and left everyone else on the outside looking in.
The federal government grows marijuana at the University of Mississippi for a reason. The federal government owns marijuana plant based patents for a reason. It’s because marijuana, THE WHOLE PLANT, has medical value that needs to be unlocked. The federal government has tried very hard to keep their monopoly on research and cultivation at the federal level. It’s time to demand that things change.
