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More than 30 states have medical marijuana programs yet researchers are only enabled to utilize cannabis plants from one U.S. source for their research. That's set to change, as the federal government starts to add more growers to the mix. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Drew Angerer/Getty Images More than 30 states have medical cannabis programs yet researchers are only allowed to use cannabis plants from one U.S.

That's set to change, as the federal government begins to include more growers to the mix. Drew Angerer/Getty Images After more than 50 years, the federal government is raising an obstruction to marijuana research that researchers and advocates state has impeded extensive studies of the plant and possible drug development.

scientists have been permitted to use cannabis from only one domestic source: a facility based at the University of Mississippi, through a contract with the National Institute on Substance Abuse (NIDA). That altered earlier this month, when the Drug Enforcement Administration revealed it remains in the procedure of registering numerous additional American companies to produce marijuana for medical and scientific purposes.

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" This is a momentous decision," states Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which has spearheaded research study into other Set up 1 drugs the most restrictive class of controlled substance, which the federal government defines as "drugs without any presently accepted medical usage." "This is the last political obstruction of research study with Schedule 1 drugs," he states.

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Yet scientists still aren't permitted to simply utilize the cannabis cost state-licensed dispensaries for their scientific research since cannabis remains unlawful under federal law. "It is a huge detach," says Dr. Igor Grant, a psychiatry professor and director of the Center for Medicinal Marijuana Research at University of California, San Diego.

" We'll see a decade or more of explosive cannabis research and prospective brand-new therapies," says Dr. Steve Groff, founder and chairman of Groff North America, one of three companies that has actually openly announced it has preliminary approval from the federal government to cultivate cannabis for research study. Regardless of  Check For Updates , researchers have encountered administrative and legal obstacles to growing pharmaceutical-grade cannabis for years.