On April 12, 2018, United States U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch and Kamala Harris advocated for an end to the NIDA monopoly on research-grade marijuana in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“US Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter today to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to cease efforts to slow medical marijuana research, following reports that the Department of Justice was blocking medical marijuana research efforts by delaying approvals for manufacturers growing research-grade medical marijuana.
Expanded research has been called for by President Trump’s Surgeon General, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the FDA, the CDC, the National Highway Safety Administration, the National Institute of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Academies of Sciences, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. There are currently two bipartisan bills before the Senate Judiciary Committee that would streamline the cumbersome process for researchers to receive federal permission to study marijuana.”