New Jersey marijuana regulators accept public comments on a proposed new permit that would allow “clinically-focused” dispensaries enter into partnerships to conduct cannabis studies using the products they sell or grow to patients.
New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission said that it was seeking to amend state marijuana laws to create “clinical registrant permit” which would allow for more focused research on “the therapeutic efficacy or palliative effectiveness of medical cannabis,” as well as other study topics.
Clinical registrants will be able to perform activities like growing, manufacturing and marketing marijuana as well as other dispensary licensees. They’d be able, however, to establish a “written contract relationship” with an academic medical centre in the area where they have their principal place of business in order to “engage clinical research related the use of medicinal cannabis.”
Researchers would then be able conduct clinical trials in state with the same products that patients buy from dispensaries.
Your comments can influence the final outcome. The Clinical Registrant’s comment period will end on October 6, 2023. Learn more: https://t.co/IrGgxnUNTV pic.twitter.com/hVEM31K999
New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission 6 September 2023
The proposed rule states that “a clinical registrant can dispense usable medicinal cannabis and medical marijuana products in any form approved by an institution review board (IRB) directly to an educational medical center as part a research study.” The proposed rule states that “An academic center handling medical cannabis products shall handle them in a way consistent with their standards for handling, storing, and disposing of other patient medication.”
The clinical registrants were not allowed to simultaneously “hold a medical cannabis cultivator permit, a medical cannabis manufacturing permit, a medical cannabis dispensary license, or a personal use cannabis business licence.” Academic research institutions that partnered with the registrants also couldn’t accept anything of value from clinically-focused dispensaries, “except reasonable remuneration in a contract for services performed or costs incurred by an academic medical center.”
comments on the proposal will be accepted until October 6.
The CRC stated that “the Commission expects the proposed new rules for clinical registrant permit to have a beneficial social impact by fully achieving the statute’s objective of ensuring the safe access to medicinal cannabis for patients in need, by authorizing a second type of permit.”
The new permit could fill in research gaps created by federal prohibition. Scientists are forced to not only go through lengthy registration processes with the Drug Enforcement Administration to gain access to cannabis for study purposes, but also to use products grown by government agencies that are of lower quality and potency compared to cannabis sold on state-legal market.
representatives of several federal agencies met last week to discuss this issue.
Nora Volkow, the director of NIDA’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, has herself expressed support for allowing researchers to study cannabis purchased from state-licensed retailers.
The bill signed by President Joe Biden last year aims to streamline the marijuana research process. However, lawmakers did not include provisions in the House version which would have allowed researchers access to cannabis at licensed dispensaries.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recommended that cannabis be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III in the Controlled Substances Act. It’s still unclear whether the Drug Enforcement Administration will accept that recommendation.
New federal data shows record number of banks working with marijuana businesses as Senate schedules vote on reform bill
Photo by WeedPornDaily.
The post New Jersey Marijuana Regulations Propose Permits that Would Allow Dispensaries to Partner with Research Institutions first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
