HARRISBURG, Pa. — Thirty-seven states have now legalized medical marijuana, launching a real-time experiment involving millions of Americans. Yet, while cannabis remains federally illegal, no clinical trials have been completed that could produce cannabis-derived medicines for market.
That’s about to change.
Last year, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) authorized four new companies to grow and study cannabis for medical research.
“They're not being treated like it's a medicine at the federal level," said George Hodgin, CEO of Castroville, a California-based Biopharmaceutical Research Company (BRC) and one of the four approved companies. "That's just the discrepancy between federal and state law."
As attitudes toward cannabis continue to evolve, more people believe it should not be classified as a Schedule 1 drug, defined as having “no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
According to a 2021 Pew Research poll, a whopping 91% of Americans think marijuana should be legal for medical use.
“I don't think anyone, Democrat or Republican, would agree that a government control monopoly is good for patients and good for innovation,” Hodgin said.
That support is—albeit slowly—making its way into politics.
“The fact that it's classified in the same list as meth or crack or these truly dangerous substances doesn't make sense to anybody," said Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. "I don't care how far right or how far left you are.”
Fetterman has long advocated for full legalization. He supported Gov. Tom Wolf’s signing of a bill in 2016 to create a state medical marijuana program. Fetterman also went on a “listening tour” across Pennsylvania in 2019, visiting all 67 counties to gauge public support for legalizing recreational cannabis.
Pennsylvania Democrats have introduced legalization measures through years of legislative sessions, but the Republican-controlled legislature has thus far failed to pass any of them. GOP leadership has said legalization would be “reckless and irresponsible.”
However, the landscape is shifting.
A Republican state senator and Democratic state representative teamed up in October 2021 to introduce a bipartisan measure to legalize adult use cannabis. In February, the Senate Law and Justice Committee began a series of hearings to seriously discuss legalization.
Still, state legalization leaves Pennsylvania—and medical researchers there—in legal jeopardy of violating federal cannabis laws.
That’s why Fetterman has his sights set past Harrisburg, to Washington, D.C. He’s running for U.S. Senate in the fall, with a campaign platform that includes decriminalizing, "descheduling" and legalizing cannabis.
“It could be taken off the Schedule 1 list federally, which I of course, would support,” he said.
The Senate race to fill the position of retiring Senator Pat Toomey is still a crowded field of candidates. Many, though, support some relaxation of cannabis prohibitions.
All three top Democratic candidates—John Fetterman, Malcolm Kenyatta and Conor Lamb—support full legalization. Conor Lamb, however, voted against the MORE Act, a measure that would have federally decriminalized cannabis.
Of the top eight Republican candidates, only Mehmet Oz has supported full legalization. Jeff Bartos and Everett Stern have both said they support legal medical but not recreational cannabis. Kathy Barnette and Sean Gale have spoken against full legalization.
58% of Pennsylvanians support legalization, according to a Muhlenberg College poll.
When asked why political opposition has remained in spite of majority support among Pennsylvanians, Fetterman said he genuinely didn’t understand it.
“The second [state Republican lawmakers] would say yes, it would be a very straightforward process to hash out the details—no pun intended—and get everything situated."
President Joe Biden said during his presidential campaign in 2020 that he supported decriminalization but hasn’t been able to translate that support into law.
The Food and Drug Administration said it supports further research into the medical uses of cannabis. So far, it approved just one cannabis-derived drug that contains CBD. The drug, called Epidiolex, is used to treat seizures associated with some severe forms of epilepsy.
It’s a small start, but it’s opening the door to a whole new class of prescription drugs that could help millions of patients in years to come.