In Washington, D.C., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Epidiolex, a treatment for epileptic seizures that is based on a cannabis compound called cannabidiol (CBD). The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has until September 24th to re-classify Epidiolex so that it’s legal for doctors across the country to prescribe it. This could mean that researchers will be able to study CBD legally.
Daniele Piomelli, director of a new centre for cannabis research at the University of California, Irvine, told Nature, “We have a clear recognition that this plant has more potential than people credited it for, and that has reverberations that are scientific as well as legal. At this point, the limits on research seem irrational. At the very least, the DEA ought to grant researchers an exemption permitting them to study CBD — especially now that people consume it and other cannabis compounds, known as cannabinoids, in states where marijuana is legal.”