Pubdate: Tue, 13 Dec 2005
Source: Salem News (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers
Contact: http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/05/snother.pl?submitletter
Website: http://www.salemnews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3466
Author: Andrew Miga, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Related: http://www.aclu.org/medicalmarijuana
Related: The MAPS/Craker/DEA legal hearing document register 
http://www.maps.org/mmj/legal/craker-dea/index.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Lyle+Craker
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

GOVERNMENT DEFENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA MONOPOLY

WASHINGTON - Put this in your pipe and smoke it: A University of
Massachusetts professor says the medical marijuana grown by the
federal government isn't very good. He wants a permit to cultivate his
own pot, saying it would be better for research.

Lyle Craker, a horticulturist who heads the school's medicinal plant
program, is challenging the government's 36-year-old monopoly on
research marijuana. Craker's suit claims government-grown marijuana
lacks the potency medical researchers need to make important
breakthroughs.

"The government's marijuana just isn't strong enough," said Richard
Doblin, a Craker supporter who heads the Massachusetts-based
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

A hearing before a federal administrative judge at the Drug
Enforcement Administration got under way yesterday and is expected to
last all week.

Craker's suit also alleges there isn't enough of the drug freely
available for scientists across the country to work with.

The DEA contends that permitting other marijuana growers would lead to
greater illegal use of the drug. It also has said international
treaties limit the United States to one marijuana production facility.

A lab at the University of Mississippi is the government's only
marijuana-growing facility.

DEA attorneys defended the government's marijuana, contending that its
Mississippi growing center provides adequate quality and quantity for
legitimate researchers across the country.

"Whatever material is needed could be provided under" the "process
that is already in place," said Mahmoud ElSohly, a research professor
who runs the Mississippi school's cultivation program for government
agencies, including a 1,200-square-foot "growing room."

The government's official stockpile at the facility is about a metric
ton, he estimated.

"We have quite a bit of inventory," ElSohly said.

Most of it is stored in bulk in barrels lined with federally approved
plastic bags.

The most powerful marijuana is stored in a walk-in freezer, part of
the facility's storage vault, to maintain its potency.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse oversees the Mississippi
facility.

Craker, who has been fighting the government for four years, did not
attend the hearing. Doblin, whose group hopes to fund Craker's
marijuana growing, said the group has confidence in the case, which
has the support of nearly 40 members of Congress, including
Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake