Nestled among the scientific accolades of the University of Mississippi is the nation’s only federally owned marijuana farm. It’s known as the Marijuana Project, and is dedicated to growing cannabis for scientific research. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Marijuana Project is a response to federal restrictions imposed by the Controlled Substances Act. A Schedule 1 substance, like cannabis, is one that is deemed to have no medical merit, requiring researchers to register with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for official approval.
Since the establishment of the Marijuana Project, all research that has been conducted on cannabis has used marijuana grown by the University of Mississippi. This is a process that has led to scrutiny among cannabis experts, who argue that federal guidelines on cannabis actually hinder scientists from conducting a wide scope of research.
Before the boom of marijuana legalization across the country, the 12-acre farm was involved with a small amount of research, due to a lack of scientific demand. CNN reported that in 2013, there was actually no marijuana growing at all; only to return nearly two years later, to find a surplus of marijuana, awaiting federal research.
And in 2017, PBS reported that after being awarded a federal grant to study cannabis, researchers received moldy weed in return. “It didn’t resemble cannabis. It didn’t smell like cannabis,” researcher and primary care physician Sue Sisley told PBS.
The protocol for the study required researchers to send the sample to an independent lab, which was in Colorado, that found a high amount of total yeast and mold (TYM). According to the article, neither NIDA or the University of Mississippi tested marijuana samples for mold before they were sent to Sisley and her team. NIDA argued that the lab where the sample was sent was responsible for the mold, where samples were accidentally left in a refrigerator, instead of remaining frozen. However, the lab maintains that the high amounts of TYM were present in samples that were never taken out of the freezer prior to testing. It’s worth noting that elevated TYM counts do not always necessitate a health risk, and thankfully, the TYM that were found in this specific sample, were found to be harmless.
Researchers also concluded that the amount of THC in the samples was relatively low, with some samples only reaching at 8%. At the time, the most potent strain of cannabis available to researchers, tested at 13%.
As THC levels in dispensary products continue to rise, a trend that has brought high-potency flower (with THC levels in the upper twenties) and extracts (where THC can even approach the nineties) to the forefront, one might wonder about the long-term effects of consuming high-potency THC. However, the Marijuana Project seems to lack the product that matches what customers are actually consuming.
In 2014, NIDA announced that the agency was trying to keep up with consumer demand by rotating and diversifying the strains it produces. NIDA explained that blending strains could create products with different levels of cannabinoids. This drew more criticism toward the agency, as cannabinoid compounds are unique to each plant. Researchers feared that mixing strains might make it hard to track the specific effects of any given strain.
If the DEA moves to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, research on cannabis could become more accessible. Proponents of rescheduling argue that this change could lead to a new era of scientific investigation into cannabis, which feels increasingly necessary as cannabis use becomes more widespread.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 7, 2025.