Sixteen years after Nevada lawmakers ordered UNR to start researching medical marijuana, they’re still getting the same yield every three months — a letter from UNR’s medical school saying nothing’s happened.

The research that seemed like a good idea shortly after the state authorized medical marijuana in 2000 has been at a standstill ever since, stymied by a myriad of causes ranging from lack of state funding to uncertainty about a potential marijuana crackdown on the federal level under the leadership of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“Since the December 29, 2016 report, no Nevada residents have contacted the Office of Medical Research about the availability of a clinical trial program for medicinal marijuana at the University of Nevada School of Medicine,” reads the latest letter from the school that was submitted to the Interim Finance Committee and accepted with no discussion at a meeting last week. “This level of interest is consistent with historical observations.”

A memo from three months earlier is word-for-word the same, with little more than the date changed.

It’s a far cry from the dream of former Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, who originally envisioned the Nevada Department of Agriculture growing a unique strain of marijuana and supplying a robust research program. Even at that time, she said, there was “timidity” among the colleges and fear that such research on a Schedule 1 controlled substance would jeopardize federal grants; her bill was eventually watered down to something similar to what Oregon had at the time.

Asked whether the quarterly correspondence keeps the university in compliance with the intent of the bill, she was blunt.

“No, not really,” said the Democratic former lawmaker and current Clark County commissioner. “But nobody’s challenged them on that.”

It’s not that such research is impossible. Lawmakers in California took a similar route as Nevada in 1999 when they passed a bill that laid the groundwork for the University of California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. The center, located at the University of California at San Diego, has studied the effects of cannabis on neuropathic pain in people with diabetes and HIV, and scientists have examined the substance as a treatment for spasticity in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Currently, it’s working on a state-funded study to determine how much marijuana makes a person too impaired to drive. That’s something that would interest Nevada lawmakers — Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Steve Yeager said state law specifies levels of the psychoactive ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in the blood that would qualify someone for a marijuana DUI, but noted that the numbers are somewhat arbitrary and aren’t backed up by research quantifying such impairment.

There are numerous reasons why Nevada’s project hasn’t taken flight.

Most of the complication is that marijuana is still categorized by the federal government as a Schedule 1 drug with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” As a result, researchers have a tough time getting their hands on legally produced weed for study.

The only place to get marijuana is through a federally sanctioned marijuana farm grown in conjunction with the University of Mississippi. Even then, there had really been only one strain of marijuana available — one with relatively high concentrations of THC.

Another ingredient in marijuana — CBD (cannabidiol) — has different effects on the body, including potentially lessening the effect of THC. But without more strains coming from the farm, there’s no federally sanctioned way to study them.

Another major problem is that lawmakers have not funded the research since they required it in 2001. That spells trouble for the School of Medicine, where doctors make the majority of their income from caring for patients who see them for normal health care needs, and only make a fraction — perhaps 5 percent or 10 percent — from their professor salaries.

The small salary doesn’t afford much time to pursue research and write grants if there isn’t separate funding to back it up.

What’s more, marijuana’s effects can be hard to measure because of its nature as a plant. Researchers have compared it to measuring the effects of consuming spinach — it can probably be recommended, but it would be difficult to isolate the effects to the extent that it could be prescribed.

But more than that, changing or expanding state law on marijuana research simply hasn’t been high on the priority list for the Nevada System of Higher Education, whose major achievements this session included securing more funding for the UNLV Medical School, an engineering building at UNR and other projects. A bill in the 2017 session that would have expanded the law to allow medical marijuana research at Nevada public colleges aside from UNR never got a floor vote in either house and died.

Giunchigliani sees the lack of progress as a missed opportunity for economic growth and important scientific findings.

“At some point the regents have to weigh in,” Giunchigliani said. “It’s a policy decision, not something to be afraid of. I don’t see the feds coming in just because you’re studying and researching marijuana.”

James Kenyon, the medical school's senior associate dean of research who has to write the quarterly letter to the Legislature reporting meager progress in marijuana studies, pointed to major logistical barriers stalling the research. But he acknowledged it would be worthwhile to devote some of the proceeds of Nevada’s burgeoning marijuana market to one area of research in particular — addiction and other public health issues that could emerge as legal pot bursts onto the scene in Nevada.

“There’s a very valuable and important opportunity to direct some of the funds that are likely to come out of this into the consequences in terms of public health,” he said.

So far, like the research itself, that hasn’t been done.

Feature photo: Cannabis plant nearly ready for harvest at Reef Dispensaries, 3400 Western Ave., on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Interim Finance Committee - UNR Marijuana Research - June 2017 by Michelle Rindels on Scribd