Pubdate: Mon, 19 Feb 2007
Source: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, MS)
Copyright: 2007 Journal Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.djournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/823
Author:  Errol Castens, Daily Journal Oxford Bureau
Note: The 87-page opinion is at http://www.maps.org/ALJfindings.PDF
Cited: The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies 
http://www.maps.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Lyle+Craker (Lyle Craker)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

OLE MISS MAY GET COMPETITION IN GROWING LEGAL MARIJUANA

OXFORD - A judicial opinion may end the University of Mississippi's 
monopoly on growing marijuana for researchers in the United States.

A field at the Oxford campus is the United States' only legal source 
of cannabis. Since 1968, the university has had contracts with the 
National Institute for Drug Abuse - competitively bid and renewed 
every three to five years - to grow the plant and distribute it as 
NIDA directs to researchers nationwide.

Dr. Lyle Craker, a horticulturist at the University of Massachusetts 
at Amherst petitioned the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to 
become a second grower of marijuana. He contends DEA's enforcement 
mission prejudices the agency against approving research projects 
that could show promise.

"Science is based on replication," Craker told the Daily Journal. "I 
always worry when the agency that is charged with keeping people from 
using a substance is the one that controls all the research on it."

Craker said some researchers have also expressed needs for varieties 
of marijuana not grown at Ole Miss - a more potent variety often 
found in The Netherlands, for example.

Preliminary ruling Administrative Judge Mary Ellen Bittner of the 
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued an opinion last week that 
Craker should be allowed to grow the experimental drug.

The ruling is only an initial step toward a possible second grower. 
Higher DEA officials could overrule Bittner's opinion. The agency's 
stated position is that "marijuana has no medical value that can't be 
met more effectively by legal drugs." Some researchers, however, say 
the drug and its derivatives show promise, especially to relieve pain 
and nausea in patients with cancer or AIDS.

If Craker's petition is ultimately successful, his project will be 
funded by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies 
(MAPS), which for two decades has promoted medical research of 
marijuana, MDMA ("ecstasy") and psychedelic drugs.

While MAPS officially emphasizes academic efforts, some critics 
contend its leaders promote generalized drug legalization. The 
group's president, Rick Doblin, has served on the board of the 
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which 
advocates removal of all penalties for personal marijuana use.

Research professor Mahmoud ElSohly oversees the marijuana project as 
part of the National Center for Natural Products Research at Ole Miss 
and is a prominent marijuana researcher in his own right. Among his 
accomplishments in the field is a patent for a marijuana rectal 
suppository that eliminates the risks of smoking. The technology also 
lessens the psychological effects common to smoking marijuana and 
reduces the risk of abusing the drug.

ElSohly could not be reached Friday for comment on Bittner's ruling.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake