Nonprofit medical marijuana pharmaceutical company

For several years, I've thought that the medical marijuana movement needs to create a nonprofit medical marijuana pharmaceutical company. The company would be designed initially to become the independent, non-governmental source of marijuana for FDA-approved research and eventually to become a licensed supplier of medical marijuana by prescription. The development of this company is not a project for MAPS but should be an independent organization with a sole focus on medical marijuana. I mention the project here so that the idea can be further developed with readers' input.

It is possible that the medical research needed to convince the FDA to make marijuana into an approved pharmaceutical drug will not ever be conducted unless a non-governmental source of marijuana is established. Even if the NIH approves Dr. Abrams' study and NIDA provides him with marijuana, this inordinately lengthy and politically vulnerable approval process would need to be repeated with each new study. Furthermore, NIDA is empowered to provide marijuana for research but cannot provide it for commercial purposes if the FDA finally does approve the prescription use of marijuana. If marijuana is ever to become a prescription medicine, a non-governmental source of supply will eventually be needed.

I've already begun to explore the feasibility of this project. I've been in contact with two very qualified people, one located in Hawaii and the other in Florida, who are interested in applying to the DEA for a permit to manage an operational marijuana production facility under contract to a nonprofit medical marijuana pharmaceutical company. The next tasks are to find people who are interested in establishing the nonprofit organization, prepare an application for a DEA permit and develop a more precise budget for establishing a marijuana production facility. I currently estimate that it will cost about $250,000 to develop the production facility, grow the first crop, open an FDA Drug Master File for the marijuana, and prepare the marijuana into a standardized dosage form.