The US Drug Enforcement Administration has proposed new rules that mean, for the first time, medications containing delta-9 THC from the cannabis plant could be eligible for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The rules, if enacted, would move the cannabis plant from a schedule I to a schedule III substance, so its federal legal status would shift drastically from a narcotic with "no accepted medical use" to a regulated medication.
Nearly 4 million Americans are already using medical cannabis in states where it's been legalized, contradicting federal laws. Given that so many Americans already have access to some form of medical cannabis, it's unclear whether pharmaceutical companies would benefit from seeking FDA approval for cannabis-based drugs.
Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego, thinks that the way legalization happened might discourage pharmaceutical companies from investing in cannabis.
"The states have got way ahead of the federal government," he said. "Putting it the other way, the federal government has been way behind the states and public opinion." Jahan Marcu, who wrote the book Cannabis Innovations on hemp and cannabis regulation, agrees, and is "skeptical about the notion that there will be a sudden wave of cannabis-derived drugs submitted for FDA approval following rescheduling".
Read more at theguardian.com