Biden is the first US president to sign a cannabis bill

US President Joe Biden made history on December 2 by becoming the first US president to approve and sign a cannabis-related bill, the “Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act🇧🇷 The law establishes a new procedure for applying for and obtaining licenses to conduct cannabis research and to manufacture cannabis products for the purposes of drug research and development.

This important legislation, which is intended to facilitate the study of the plant by scientific researchers, also invites the US federal government to analyze the potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. It could also help with the review of substance classification tables with regard to cannabis, a measure that had been announced by Biden in October and is currently underway.

This is the first cannabis-related bill to pass both houses of the US Congress, after being given the green light by the Senate last month through a process called "unanimous consent".

The bill allows both research universities, including those that receive federal funding, and private companies to acquire licenses from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to grow and handle cannabis for research purposes.

In addition, it also gives direct instructions to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), in coordination with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other relevant entities, to investigate the “therapeutic potential of cannabis” in various pathologies, as well as to that studies and investigations be carried out on the impact of cannabis on adolescent brain development and on the ability to operate motor vehicles.

Another aspect that the new bill includes is the fact that it allows doctors to discuss with their patients the benefits and potential harms of using cannabis and its derivatives, including CBD.