First DEA-Approved Company To Harvest Cannabis For Medical Research Says It Was Worth All The Effort

The York County, PA-based Groff North America claims to be the first company in the U.S. to introduce its cannabis crop for legal medical research, reported witf.

The news comes some 10 months after the DEA announced it will begin approving applications allowing some marijuana growers to become federally authorized to cultivate the plant for research purposes.

Though the DEA began asking for applications for additional cannabis cultivators under President Barack Obama then later the Trump administration, it had not approved any of them.

Up until now, only one cultivator – a farm functioning as part of the University of Mississippi – was the only legal source of cannabis for federal research. The university had obtained the license back in 1968, which made it the only source for research cannabis in the United States for over 50 years.

A Huge Catalyst 

This means that, after more than half a century of having only one source of federal research cannabis, Groff North America is about to become the second source. Initially a hemp company, the Pennsylvania company is one of only four in the country to obtain DEA approval to sell its products for medical and scientific purposes. Its first crops for this purpose were introduced last month. 

Groff North America’s founder and chief medical officer, Dr. Steven Groff, called the DEA’s policy change last year “a huge catalyst to unleashing the American scientific community.

“For the first time, real-world marijuana will be available to researchers throughout the country,” Groff said. “We’re working with some of the top institutions in America in providing new types of material that heretofore wasn’t available from Mississippi.”

Groff added that those items include vaping and oil products, which are now available across 37 states with legal medical marijuana programs.

“Medical cannabis has really exploded in America over the last 25 years,” Groff said. “The horse has left the barn, and America has decided it wants access to cannabis in one way or another. The [federal] government needs to really catch up as does the scientific community.”

Worth The Effort And The Money 

Upon its first federally-authorized harvest, the company had to turn the crop over to the DEA before buying it back and then selling it to researchers. The transfer, which took place on Feb. 2, was the first such transaction between a for-profit business and the federal government, Groff noted.

The DEA rigorously checked the company’s operations and paperwork for 20 months before approving it for marijuana cultivation. Now the company must undertake comprehensive security measures and administrative safeguards to avoid theft, Groff explained. 

Despite the hefty compliance expenses, Groff says it was worth it. “We see a number of opportunities to provide revenue, and then ultimately our long-term play is to be a pharmaceutical manufacturer of a number of cannabis-based drugs.”

Cannabinoids For MRSA

Some of the company’s future plans, aside from supplying research cannabis to others, Groff himself intends to look into specific cannabinoids as antibiotics to treat MRSA - a type of bacteria that causes severe skin and soft-tissue infections.

 “It’s a powerful plant. It’s an amazing plant," Groff said. "But there’s so much more we can do with it once we begin to really look at the data and maximize its potential.”