This Groundbreaking FDA-Approved Study Will Use Marijuana Produced by a U.S. Company

CTPharma, a Connecticut company that supplies cannabis products to dispensaries under that state's medical marijuana program, recently announced that it is collaborating with researchers at Yale University on a federally approved study of CBD and THC as treatments for pain and stress. This appears to be the first time that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has signed off on a medical study involving U.S.-grown cannabis from a source other than the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), heretofore the only legal supplier of marijuana for research in this country.

Researchers have long complained about the quality and variety of Uncle Sam's cannabis, which is grown at the University of Mississippi under an exclusive contract with NIDA. They have also noted that NIDA marijuana cannot be used for commercial purposes, which means it cannot be used in Phase III clinical trials, the last step before FDA approval of a new medicine. The drug that subjects take at that stage has to be the same as the drug that will be sold to patients once the medication is approved.