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Newshawk: Free The Weed
Pubdate: Tue, 13 Feb 2007
Source: North Country Gazette (NY)
Copyright: 2007 North Country Gazette
Contact: http://www.northcountrygazette.org/contact.html
Website: http://www.northcountrygazette.org
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4057
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
DEA JUDGE SUPPORTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCH
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union applauded a ruling
issued by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration judge that
recommends ending the federal government's 65- year monopoly on the
supply of marijuana available for Food and
Drug Administration-approved medical research.
The ACLU represents University of Massachusetts-Amherst Professor
Lyle Craker, who petitioned the Drug Enforcement Administration
( DEA ) for a license to grow research-grade marijuana for use in
privately-funded studies that aim to develop the plant into a legal,
prescription medicine. The DEA judge ruled that it is in the public
interest to end the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA )
monopoly on the supply of marijuana that can be used in Food and
Drug Administration ( FDA )-approved research.
"For too long the DEA has inappropriately inserted politics into a
regulatory process that should be left to the FDA and medical
science," said Allen Hopper, an attorney with the ACLU Drug Law
Reform Project. "We are pleased that the judge has recommended an
end to the federal government's blockade of medical marijuana research."
[Remainder snipped]