The Canadian federal government is scrambling to respond to a glut of license applications for cannabis research prompted by legalization in October 2018. The queue of applicants –there were 251 in line as of late July – and the attendant months-long waiting times are frustrating scientists interested in the basic biology and therapeutic possibilities of cannabis. The delays are also prompting criticism of Health Canada.
“Everybody is growing, consuming, and buying it, but the labs are still: ‘How do we get these projects going?’” says Jonathan Page, chief science officer for Aurora Cannabis in Edmonton, one of Canada’s licensed producers of the psychoactive plant. “The [licensing] system is swamped, and research is not exactly, I think, a priority.”
According to a University of Guelph researcher
Mike Dixon, backlogs in permit processing at Health Canada have the potential to stall cannabis research throughout the country.
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