NIDA

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is one of the institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), tasked with supporting research on drug use and addiction. From 1968 until 2021, NIDA administered—via a contract with the University of Mississippi's National Center for Natural Products Research—the sole DEA-registered source of federal research-grade cannabis. That monopoly effectively ended on May 14, 2021, when the DEA announced it would register additional bulk manufacturers; by 2022 seven registrations had issued, including Biopharmaceutical Research Co., Groff North America, Royal Emerald Pharmaceuticals, Scottsdale Research Institute, Irvine Labs, and Maridose. NIDA's research portfolio has historically emphasized harms (addiction, neurodevelopment, impaired driving) over therapeutics. ⚠️ As of April 2026, NIDA's organizational status is unsettled: the White House FY2026 budget proposed consolidating NIDA with NIAAA and NIMH into a new "National Institute on Behavioral Health" as part of an NIH reduction from 27 to 8 institutes. Congress has not enacted the reorganization, though administrative personnel actions have already changed agency operations. → See also: NIH cannabis research.