DEA Wants More Pot, Less Opioids

What’s the story?

• The Drug Enforcement Agency is moving to increase the amount of marijuana allowed to be grown for research purposes by over 500 percent in 2019 compared to this year.
• At the same time, the DEA announced in a press release that it plans on a “significant opioid manufacturing reduction in 2019.” This would affect commonly prescribed schedule II painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, morphine, and fentanyl.

Decrease in opioids

• “Consistent with President Trump’s 'Safe Prescribing Plan' that aims to “cut nationwide opioid prescription fills by one-third within three years,” the DEA’s proposal “decreases manufacturing quotas for the six most frequently misused opioids for 2019 by an average ten percent as compared to the 2018 amount.”
• “We’ve lost too many lives to the opioid epidemic and families and communities suffer tragic consequences every day,” said DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon.

“This significant drop in prescriptions by doctors and DEA’s production quota adjustment will continue to reduce the amount of drugs available for illicit diversion and abuse while ensuring that patients will continue to have access to proper medicine.”

Increase in pot

• The anti-drug agency plans to increase the amount of pot grown for research from around 1,000 pounds in 2018 to more than 5,400 pounds next year.
• The DEA said these upped quotas "reflects the total amount of controlled substances necessary to meet the country’s medical, scientific, research, industrial, and export needs for the year and for the establishment and maintenance of reserve stocks.”
• This marks the third straight year of proposed reductions to opioid manufacturing, something the agency said will “help reduce the amount of drugs potentially diverted for trafficking and used to facilitate addiction.”

Why would the DEA need additional pot?

• Earlier this year, both chambers of Congress introduced the VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2018. If passed, it would authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to research the use of medicinal pot to treat “veterans enrolled in the VA health care system diagnosed with conditions such as chronic pain or post-traumatic stress disorder.”
• And last month, a group of bipartisan senators sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions – a longtime opponent of marijuana legalization – in which they argued:

“[R]esearch and medical communities should have access to research-grade materials to answer questions around marijuana’s efficacy and potential impacts, both positive and adverse.”

What do you think?

• Do you agree with the latest moves by the DEA? Should the agency grow more marijuana while cutting down on the manufacturing of prescription opioids? Will this help solve the opioid epidemic?
• Do you want your reps to support the 2018 VA Medicinal Cannabis Act? Or should lawmakers respect the Department of Justice’s anti-marijuana stance? 

Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / RylandZweifel)