Some of you may have received, or otherwise become aware of, this message recently from the California’s Attorney General’s Office regarding RAP-C and the expectation that Governor will soon sign AB 2841 (Waldron), “Good afternoon! I wanted to flag for you that since AB 2841 (Waldron) recently passed, RAP-C is now planning to meet for the first time in a year on July 19.” This meeting could unleash dozens of new studies.
While it is a huge relief that the year-long freeze on addiction and controlled substance research will be lifted, this unfortunately does not solve the entire problem. RAP-C was created in 1965 when there was no regulation of research. There is now extensive regulation of research and RAPC is entirely redundant of federal processes. More importantly, RAPC takes 5-12 months to review a study, which is not viable in the modern age of research when studies are expected to be completed during a similar time frame. All other regulators expend enormous efforts to meet the timeframes of modern research, conducting reviews in weeks, and funders are not interested in working in a state that cannot meet those timeframes. CSAP is aware of one research entity in California that lost out on $4 million in addiction treatment research in 2024 alone because of this committee, costing jobs and opportunities for potential health benefits among the most stigmatized Californians. While most think that RAP-C only regulates controlled substance research, the committee also regulates studies of ANY medications to treat addiction to controlled substances. E.g. a California researcher can study mirtazapine for any condition with normal research regulations, but if it is for addiction, RAP-C blocks the research.
Some success due the work of CSAP and others, but clearly more to do here…