The U.L.-Monroe College of Pharmacy will begin testing and researching hemp and cannabis for quality, purity, and further health applications. West Monroe state Representative Mike Echols says he worked to amend the current medical cannabis law to allow ULM to get involved.
“They have the School of Pharmacy at ULM, the state’s only publicly-funded school of pharmacy, and so there was a real key relationship between some of the products that are being produced out there now and the new pharmaceutical products that could be produced. We wanted ULM to have a chance to do some research in that space,” says Echols.
Medical cannabis grown by facilities affiliated with the LSU and Southern University Ag Centers must continually be tested for consistency, potency, and safety. He says increased demand for medical cannabis means more products grown, and adding ULM as an additional tester makes sense. Echols says this should not lead to any more growing operations, though, “but more distribution points to the existing pharmacies PLUS additional licenses through those pharmacies to get the product to other places in the state.”
KNOE TV in Monroe reports the research could mean additional jobs at ULM, plus over a million dollars in revenue. Echols says that sum would be just from testing existing products: “Now, as far as pharmaceutical research goes, if they are able to find new drugs and new potential for that particular strain, then there is unlimited potential.”
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