A high federal drug company is now formally soliciting proposals for a contractor to develop, harvest and analyze hundreds of thousands of grams of marijuana for analysis functions.
The Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) revealed a request for proposal (RFP) discover final week, stating that it’s looking for producers which are able to cultivating, testing and rolling joints of about 4 million grams of hashish over a five-year interval.
For greater than 50 years, NIDA has relied completely on marijuana grown by a single farm on the College of Mississippi for research that it oversees. However in current months, a number of extra cultivators have been licensed. If a kind of is awarded a contract below the brand new RFP, it’s going to lastly finish the half-century monopoly—although NIDA stated it “reserves the suitable to make a single award, a number of awards, or no award in any respect to the solicitation.”
Candidates should possess a Schedule I analysis registration from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in an effort to provide NIDA with the majority marijuana. The 172-page RFP lays out the in depth necessities for contractors and descriptions of the duties.
“The first goal of this contract is to supply supplies to help analysis on marijuana (hashish) and its constituents,” the RFP says. “Research require a supply of hashish supplies with constant and predictable efficiency, freed from contamination and in adequate quantities to help all kinds of analysis wants.”
“The Contractor shall produce or procure hashish, hashish extract and different cannabis-derived supplies for fundamental and medical analysis, and conduct quantitative and qualitative evaluation, stability dedication, and really useful storage circumstances for these merchandise for authorised analysis. Hashish is utilized in a big number of analysis initiatives and this contract serves as a supply of such materials in the united statesfrom the Federal authorities. The Contractor shall present adequate portions of hashish to fulfill anticipated wants as directed by the NIDA Contracting Officer’s Consultant (COR).”
When NIDA says that it’s in search of a contractor that’s able to rising “adequate portions” of marijuana, it means so much of marijuana.
The proposal says that producers ought to be capable to domesticate about 4,000 kilograms (roughly 8,800 kilos) of hashish over the five-year contract interval, from March 23, 2023 to March 22, 2028.
For the primary “process,” the company stated it expects to acquire 500 kilograms inside the first 12 months. That’s the equal of about 1.6 million normal joints, only for the primary a part of the contract. All instructed, the contractor would want the capability to develop the equal of about 12.5 million joints price of hashish in the course of the period of the contract.
NIDA stated that the contractor should “develop hashish, produce analysis and cGMP-grade bulk hashish and hashish cigarettes, and keep a inventory of hashish preparations corresponding to bulk and cigarettes of various potencies of varied cannabinoids, and hashish extracts for distribution.”
The company additionally appears to have acquired the message from lawmakers and scientists that the present provide of “research-grade” hashish isn’t fairly as much as par, with one extensively cited examine discovering that the content material of the federal government’s marijuana is extra chemically much like non-intoxicating hemp than marijuana that’s obtainable in state-legal business markets throughout the nation.
The RFP states that the contractors should “make sound effort to develop and produce hashish merchandise that match the formulations and cannabinoid profiles of confiscated samples and merchandise at present obtainable on the leisure and/or medical hashish market.”
Consultants, together with NIDA Director Nora Volkow, have pushed to additional diversify the provision of marijuana that’s obtainable to researchers by letting them receive hashish from the state-legal retailers themselves, however that also isn’t allowed.
President Joe Biden did signal an infrastructure invoice final November that features provisions geared toward permitting researchers to review the precise marijuana that customers are buying from these dispensaries, however it’s an incremental reform that merely requires officers to supply a report with suggestions on additional motion after two years.
In any case, the brand new RFP means that NIDA is doing what it could possibly inside its administrative authority to raised align the merchandise obtainable to researchers and customers.
DEA has thus far authorized a complete of seven services to develop marijuana for analysis functions, and so it’s more likely to be an intense competitors to develop into the second federally licensed provider within the nation.
NIDA previewed some particulars concerning the proposal in July after releasing an preliminary “sources sought” discover this 12 months, however it simply began accepting bids on September 14. events have till October 28 submit their accomplished proposals.
It’s not simply the provision of government-grown hashish that’s impeded analysis; scientists additionally say that the Schedule I standing of marijuana below the Managed Substances Act is prohibitive by itself, discouraging researchers from taking over hashish research.
Even the NIDA’s director stated that she’s personally reluctant to undergo the onerous technique of getting approval to review Schedule I medicine like marijuana.
Nationwide Middle for Complementary and Integrative Well being (NCCIH) Director Helene Langevin just lately stated that marijuana analysis is “fraught with hurdles”—together with its continued prohibition below federal regulation—that have to be addressed in an effort to unlock research on areas corresponding to how cannabinoids can function “safer instruments” than opioids in managing ache.
Langevin stated that a lot of the federally funded analysis on marijuana thus far has “narrowly targeted on the potential harms” of THC. And she or he argued that it’s necessary to realize a extra holistic scientific understanding of the plant and its parts’ potential advantages and harms.
It’s with that goal in thoughts that NCCIH, which falls below the Nationwide Institutes on Well being (NIH), just lately revealed a “Request for Info” (RFI), soliciting suggestions from the scientific group “about its curiosity in and obstacles to analysis on the well being results of hashish and its constituents.”
NCCIH individually posted a Discover of Particular Curiosity (NOSI) in July in an effort to promote “mechanistic analysis” into minor cannabinoids like CBG, CBN and delta-8 THC.
In the meantime, NIDA additionally introduced in June that it plans to supply $1.5 million in funding to help researchers who can develop a medical marijuana registry to trace every thing from how sufferers are acquiring and consuming hashish to their well being outcomes.
The company has additionally expressed curiosity in funding research on differing hashish regulatory fashions which are in place in states throughout the nation.
Individually, a bipartisan duo of congressional lawmakers just lately filed a invoice to set a federal marijuana analysis agenda and create a designation for universities to hold out hashish research with federal grant cash. The laws from Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Dave Joyce (R-OH) is titled the “Creating and Nationalizing Key Hashish Analysis Act,” or the DANK Hashish Analysis Act.
The invoice submitting got here on the identical week that the U.S. Home of Representatives individually voted to approve one other bipartisan marijuana analysis invoice that’s additionally supposed to expedite and simplify the method of receiving authorization to review the dangers and advantages of marijuana.
That measure, which might not permit researchers to review dispensary hashish, is predicted to be taken up by the Senate in brief order earlier than probably being despatched to the president’s desk.