According to The Associated Press, the U.S. government will be growing the largest crop of research marijuana in five years.
Scientists have asked for weed that more closely matches what’s sold in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana said the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to The Associated Press.
The federal agency is expecting to grow 4,409 pounds of marijuana this year at the University of Mississippi. The facility holes the sole federal contract for producing marijuana in the U.S.
The NIDA said that the crop will be divided between high THC and high CBD varieties with “recent interest (in CBD) as a potential medicine for a number of medical conditions.”
“We want to study what our patients are using,” said University of Colorado Assistant Professor Emily Lindley. Lindley is investigating marijuana with high THC as an alternative to opioids for chronic back pain.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration created an application process for growers, but has not acted on more than two dozen applications.
“We are still working through the process and those applications remain under review,” said DEA spokeswoman Katherine Pfaff to the AP.