Dear Sir/Madam,
 I am the Plant Systems Lead Scientist at the Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). My expertise is plant systematics and medicinal plants. Before joining to the Texas A&M System, I was the lead botanist and the in charge of medicinal plant program at the University of Mississippi where I involved in the Cannabis research with the support from DEA. Currently I have a USDA/NIFA funded medicinal plant program to evaluate the quality and safety of herbal products in the market and to develop botanical, chemical and genomic standards for the medicinal plants. 

There is a great potential at PVAMU College of Agriculture and Human Sciences to develop a research program for industrial hemp. I am currently working with a private company in Portland, OR to develop GAP and GMP in their industrial hemp production. My team has worked on identification of elite high CBD clones and also few successful breeding lines. We also optimized the currently available CO2 extraction systems to get the high quality CBD oil. However our research has slowed down tremendously as we do not have any permission to grow industrial Hemp in Texas and I am wondering if my university is eligible to apply for a permit to grow industrial hemp and conduct our research more effectively. I really appreciate your attention and advise regarding this process. We are exited to develop a program at PVAMU to help Texas farmers to grow industrial hemp.

Many thanks!

Sincerely,

Aruna Weerasooriya, PhD; FLS
Research Scientist Leader in Plant Systems
Cooperative Agricultural Research Center
College of Agriculture & Human Sciences
Prairie View A&M University