The non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) announced yesterday that they received a little more than $2 million in grant money from the state of Colorado in order to conduct the first clinical trial of “whole plant marijuana” in the treatment of PTSD. One of the more important notes about this clinical trial is that both the FDA and the DEA have signed off on it.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has formally approved the first-ever randomized controlled trial of whole plant medical marijuana (cannabis) as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in U.S. veterans. The DEA’s approval marks the first time a clinical trial intended to develop smoked botanical marijuana into a legal prescription drug has received full approval from U.S. regulatory agencies, including the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled study will test the safety and efficacy of botanical marijuana in 76 U.S. military veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD. The study is funded by a $2.156 million grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to the California-based non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which is sponsoring the research.
[My emphasis]
Yet another sign that the DEA is either willingly or unwillingly having to pivot in its thinking towards the drug.