Cannabis for research: The great silence

Since the 1960s there has only ever been one federally licensed farm that grows cannabis for researchers, and it’s at the University of Mississippi. In 2016, the US Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it would license additional growers, and more than thirty entities rushed in from all over the world to apply. As Cannabis Wire first reported, this included major companies like Battelle, which is perhaps better known for its work with the US government on Homeland Security and National Security issues. Then, in August 2019, the DEA said, essentially, that it was starting over. Since then, for those dozens of applicants, it’s been a waiting game while the DEA’s proposed rules for applicants are under White House review.

One of those applicants, Cannabis Wire learned, met in November 2019 with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) about the DEA’s proposed rules for applicants, which have been awaiting approval from the OMB since last August. So we caught up with the founder of that company, Biopharmaceutical Research Company, to learn more about this meeting, and this years-long process of preparing for an historic opportunity. We spoke with George Hodgin, the former Navy SEAL who launched the company in 2017. Read more →