By Ramone Tarnaski

After years of large silence on the issue, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has published its first guidelines on how to apply for licenses to grow cannabis for research purposes. The decision comes less than a year after the US Congress passed a law calling for more marijuana research and more than two years after the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.

Like almost everything else these days, the bill has strong bipartisan support, from both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate.

The changes will open the door to better marijuana research in the US, and the new rules will take effect on January 19. The DEA issued preliminary and final rules in March, but comments were sought from interested parties and minor adjustments were made to the rules before the final rule was published in the federal register.

It has been a slow, arduous process to enforce the new rules and changes, but it is a step in the right direction for marijuana research.

This rule change will finally allow companies to obtain licenses for the cultivation of cannabis for research purposes. At some point in the last 50 years, only the University of Mississippi has been allowed to grow marijuana. Researchers filed a lawsuit against the DEA after a delayed hearing, saying cannabis was as safe as cannabis anyone could buy at a pharmacy.

This has led to researchers in the US falling behind their counterparts in other countries in their research on the safety and efficacy of cannabis as a drug for research purposes.

The DEA continues to spend vast sums to seize and seize millions of pounds of marijuana, sometimes simply paying contractors to burn it. This situation has remained the same, although the DEA announced in 2016 that it would develop rules that allow entrepreneurs to grow cannabis for research purposes. The final rules will come after the US House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill to expand cannabis research.