For more than four decades, the only entity allowed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to produce marijuana for research has been the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi under a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Proponents for research into marijuana’s medical abilities have long decried this monopoly, stating that it held back research.

It seems that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) concurs after a newly released 2018 memo stated that this arrangement has always been illegal. According to the memo, an international treaty requires tighter controls on the production and distribution of marijuana. This partly explains why the DEA has been hesitant to license additional marijuana suppliers.

For a very long time, researchers have complained about the quality and variety of marijuana produced by NIDA. State-licensed dispensaries provide marijuana that’s much better on both counts, but researchers cannot use it. Dr. Sue Sisley, president of the Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI) was researching marijuana’s effect on military vets with PTSD, and she wasn’t happy with the cannabis she received from NIDA.

“The marijuana was a powdery mishmash of stems, sticks, and leaves,” she says. The THC levels were quite low at 8%, far lower than state-legal marijuana. The cannabis also tested positive for mold and yeast.

In August 2016, the DEA announced that it was accepting applications from additional marijuana suppliers. Dozens of entities sent in their applications but years later, not even one had been approved. It turns out Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an old fashioned anti-drug warrior, had gone out of his way to interfere with the process.

In 2018, Sessions reported that the DEA and the Department of Justice were moving forward with the licensing process. However, he alluded to an international treaty that required revision of ‘the previous proposal’. The memo released by the OLC fleshes out his statement.

In 1970, Congress incorporated the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 requirements into parts of the Controlled Substances Act. The Convention requires that a single government agency oversee cultivation and take physical possession of such crops as soon as possible, but not four months after the end of the harvest.

The agreement between the DEA and NIDA doesn’t meet these conditions. Both of them are part of different agencies. Additionally, the DEA doesn’t take physical possession of the crops, and it doesn’t have exclusive rights to wholesale trading and maintaining stock, another provision of the Convention.

The DEA published marijuana regulations on March 23, stating that it wants to “amend its regulations to comply with requirements of the Controlled Substances Act, including consistency with treaty obligations, in order to facilitate the cultivation of marijuana for research purposes and other licit purposes.”

It would be interesting to hear what cannabis companies like Sugarmade Inc. (OTCQB: SGMD) think about the revelations that have come to light after the memo which was a secret document was finally released to the public.

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Sugarmade (OTCQB: SGMD) recently acquired a significant stake in Sacramento-based Budcars Cannabis Delivery Service (http://cnw.fm/jUX5t). An article discussing the company reads, “An agreement announced in February 2020 stipulated that Sugarmade would acquire 40% of Budcars and would be granted an option to purchase an additional 30% stake, ultimately providing SGMD with a controlling interest in the growing delivery service, which serves the greater Sacramento metropolitan area. Budcars delivers a wide range of cannabis products to the metropolitan area, where the population is showing growing acceptance of cannabis usage and delivery and scores above the 50 percentile in terms of cannabis usage per capita. . . . Less than a month after making that initial announcement, Sugarmade followed with a second, even more impressive, statement. Since becoming heavily involved in the day-to-day operational and strategic foundation of Budcars following its initial investment and investor agreement, SGMD had seen a dramatic expansion in overall delivery volume with March deliveries topping February volume by more than 300%.”

To view the full article, visit http://cnw.fm/rFW7V

About Sugarmade Inc.

Sugarmade is a product and branding marketing company investing in operations and technologies with disruptive potential. More information on Sugarmade can be accessed at: www.Sugarmade.com. Sugarmade sees opportunities in business operations that combine the best areas of on-demand consumer distribution with certain areas of synergistic manufacturing and packaging to create a business model that capitalizes on the many changes in the cannabis industry. The company has made agreements with several market participants, which will be announced within Q1 and Q2 of calendar year 2020. The company views these opportunities as very scalable and capable of producing strong revenue growth for the company.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SGMD are available in the company’s newsroom at http://cnw.fm/SUGAR

About CannabisNewsWire

CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. CNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today’s market, CNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. CNW is where news, content and information converge.

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