The National Institute on Drug Abuse has terminated a partnership with a university which provided cannabis to the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the purpose of research.
Jacob Batte (director of Ole Miss’ news and media relations) told MEDCAN24 on Friday that NIDA chose not to grant the University of Mississippi a task order this year for cannabis production.
Batte continued, “The University has two years left in its federal contract and stands ready to utilize its more than 56 years of experience with cannabis to advance the cannabis field as well as meet any future NIDA requirements.”
Mahmoud ElSohly—who has long helmed the university’s cannabis cultivation and research division, contracted as part of NIDA’s drug supply program—declined to offer additional comment.
Cannabis Wire reported the cancellation first, noting that NIDA has informed Ole Miss it will no longer be ordering cannabis. The government contract for Ole Miss’ “production of marijuana and related materials for Research” runs until 2028.
The University of Mississippi has long had a monopoly in the cultivation of cannabis for research purposes. However, seven “bulk marihuana producers” have been approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In recent years, the DEA has gradually expanded the list of institutions that are eligible to grow and supply marijuana to researchers. This is in response to calls from politicians and health professionals to study this drug more thoroughly.
Ole Miss researchers reported late last year that cannabis sold in the state was “very comparable” to what they found at their school. Despite this, some researchers were sceptical, pointing out that there have been complaints of low THC levels and poor quality in the past.
NIDA cancelled the Ole Miss Order after DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency of Trump’s administration ended its contract with the University of Mississippi in May. Through this contract the University of Mississippi monitored cannabinoid levels such as THC in CBD in confiscated cannabis by law enforcement.
ElSohly who is also the head of that program said that his laboratory’s work might still lag behind until federal funding resumes. If samples stopped flowing into his Mississippi laboratory, the decades-long record of THC in illicit U.S. marijuana supply would soon be over, ElSohly said.
The earlier contract cancellation came about two months after DOGE separately promoted the end of a separate grant meant to fund a study examining cannabis use risks among LGBTQ+ individuals, non-binary people and heterosexual women.
Despite cuts in some programs, this is not the end of the University of Mississippi’s (UM’s) involvement with marijuana research.
Batte stated in a statement sent to MEDCAN24, “The UM School of Pharmacy continues to play a leadership role in state and across the nation in cannabis innovation, research and discovery through the National Center for Natural Products Research and Education and Resource Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.”
The National Institutes of Health Resource Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, hosted by Ole Miss University, was established earlier this year.
In order to complete the project, Washington State University and United States Pharmacopoeia partnered together with the University. A grant was awarded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health of the National Institutes of Health. Ole Miss leads the project’s core regulatory guidance while WSU handles research support and USP focuses on research standards.
The National Center for Natural Products Research of Ole Miss is home to the NIH’s resource center. This will “provide cannabis information through interactive websites, webinars and seed funding” as well as conferences to help researchers “generate science-based evidence”, it stated in a release.
Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration has ramped up recruitment—recently urging people to join them on the frontlines of the “war on drugs,” even if they currently work as a “coffee barista” or otherwise have a non-law enforcement background.
It was also recently revealed that “marijuana” is one of nearly two dozen “controversial or high-profile topics” that staff and researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are required to clear with higher-ups before writing about, according to a leaked memo from within the federal agency.
Separately researchers who were involved in a federally sponsored clinical trial on marijuana said in an American Journal of Medicine article that further research into this substance was of a “critical nature” due to the fact that there are millions of consumers and patients in states that have legalized it. But they also warned that the restrictions of government “stifle science exploration of its risks and potential.”
According to authors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Nursing, classifying marijuana as Schedule I substances “traps scientists in a contradiction: To prove medical value studies are required, yet they’re heavily restricted.”
They added that “reforms are essential to meet the needs of society, as legalization is outpacing science.”
Side Pocket Images. Image courtesy Chris Wallis.