The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is poised to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
The proposal still has to be approved, but moving it from its current Schedule I substance category would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and open up more research opportunities.
“It is very difficult to obtain funding to do any kind of clinical trials with cannabis or the active ingredients,” said Norbert Kaminski, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Michigan State University.
Kaminski, who also serves as the Director of the Institute for Integrative Toxicology and The Center for Research on Ingredient Safety, is a researcher himself.
He’s currently studying cannabis use in HIV patients, more specifically, how cannabis compounds impact inflammation – an issue many HIV patients struggle with.
That inflammation can also lead to dementia.
As a Schedule I drug, Kaminski is not allowed to administer cannabis to patients and instead relies on users to self-report.
“We find that those patients that are using cannabis have a profile in their immune system showing they don’t have as strong as inflammation as those who do not use cannabis,” Kaminski said.
He says that once it’s no longer a Schedule I drug, researchers such as himself will be able to conduct clinical trials with more control.
The reclassification would also help dispensary owners.
“It will eliminate a tax code called 280E, which makes it virtually almost impossible to make money,” said Jerry Millen, owner of Greentree in Walled Lake.
For him, it’s less about the tax advantage and more about the ability researchers will have to study how cannabis may be able to help people.
“I know researchers personally who have been waiting for four years for their research to be approved, just to get marijuana to test of it, to show the benefits, it’s medicine, more important is it’ll allow research and testing to be done,” Millen said.