Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz Pushes Medical Marijuana Research

One Florida Republican Representative has made a name for himself for by showing unquestioning support for much of Trump's negative publicity, however he's taking an important positive step for medical marijuana research that helps him seem much less crazy. Rep. Gaetz is not concerned with AG Sessions' famously outdated views on cannabis as he believes that common sense cannabis laws can be passed even in a republican controlled Congress. Gaetz and other lawmakers recently proposed the Medical Cannabis Research Act of 2018 as an attempt to help improve the quality of cannabis used in federal studies. Currently there is only one farm at the University of Mississippi that supplies of cannabis for fedearl research, and word is that the supply of cannabis is extremely low quality compared to cannabis bought from a legal dispensary. Often covered in mold, these low quality samples do very little for research when real people are going to be consuming a massively different product. The proposed bill would not only ensure that there are more farms for federal studies choose from with better quality cannabis, but it would also protect researchers and institutions from losing federal funding, which is a huge concern for anyone researching and enough to stop many.

The bill would protect researchers and institutions studying cannabis, as well as patients in clinical trials, from penalties or criminal charges. And that’s crucial, considering many universities refuse to research cannabis out of fear of losing federal funding.

The legislation would also require the Attorney General to ensure an adequate and uninterrupted supply of research-grade cannabis. Finally, the bill would increase the number of federally-authorized producers from one to at least three.