DENVER - For years now, some veterans groups and marijuana advocates have argued that the therapeutic benefits of the drug can help soothe the psychological wounds of battle. But with only anecdotal evidence as support, their claims have yet to gain widespread acceptance in medical circles. Now, however, researchers are seeking federal approval for what is believed to be the first study to examine the effects of marijuana on veterans with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. The proposal, from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in Santa Cruz, Calif., and a researcher at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, would look at the potential benefits of cannabis by examining 50 combat veterans who suffer from the condition and have not responded to other treatment. [continues 724 words]
As a local business owner, voter, mother and politically active member of our community, I find the recent raids of Montana cannabis growers a violent and inequitable way of pressing a point that the FBI and DEA have no business making. Four patients in the U.S. are currently supplied all of their medicine by the National Institute on Drug Abuse from the federal cannabis farm at the University of Mississippi. At this level of hypocrisy, how will Americans have any trust or faith in our own government? [continues 152 words]
These are the facts of medical marijuana. Medical marijuana already existed. It's the pharmaceutical called Marinol. It was FDA approved in 1985. It is found to relieve nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite associated with cancer and AIDS patients. Studies done by the Institute of Medicines and the National Academy of Sciences shows the active ingredient in Marinol, THC, has potential in treating Alzheimer's, neuropathic pain and damage in MS, Parkinson's, and reducing tics in Tourette syndrome. The University of Mississippi is the nation's only federally approved marijuana plantation. Researchers there do rigorous scientific testing, so far, there is no evidence that marijuana use provides any benefits over current FDA-approved therapies. [continues 205 words]
But Your Dime Bag Would Still Send You to Jail We Should Be Very Wary About the DEA Allowing Regulation and Marketing of Pharmaceutical Products Containing Plant-Derived THC. "[M]arijuana has no scientifically proven medical value." So stated the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on page six of a July 2010 agency white paper, titled "DEA Position on Marijuana." Yet only four months after the agency committed its "no medical pot" stance to print, it announced its intent to allow for the regulation and marketing of pharmaceutical products containing plant-derived THC - -- the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. [continues 1280 words]
For Three Decades, a Federal Agency Has Supplied Irvin Rosenfeld With Marijuana to Control a Rare Disease. He Tells About It in a New Book. On a recent chilly morning, Fort Lauderdale stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld interrupted his client calls for a quick marijuana cigarette in the company parking lot. Then he went back to work. The cigarette - perfectly legal for him - was one of about 120,000 the federal government has provided to him at taxpayer expense for the past 29 years. He's one of only four people who remain in a now-closed "compassionate" drug program that at its peak provided 13 patients across the country with daily doses of pot to help manage medical conditions. [continues 1293 words]
In a recent column ("Should parents drug test their teens?" Nov. 28), Lauren Forcella casually states that "pot is 10-25 times stronger today" than it was in "the '60s, '70s and '80s." By doing so, she joins the legions of lazy reporters and columnists who routinely repeat the potency falsehood that has become the cornerstone of the government's claims about the dangers of marijuana. In a recent study, the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project determined that the average THC in domestically grown marijuana -- which comprises the bulk of the U.S. market -- is less than 5 percent, a figure that's remained unchanged for decades. [continues 61 words]
TAMPA - On the fourth floor of a hivelike, 1970s-vintage lab building on the University of South Florida's medical campus, Thomas Klein has spent 25 years studying marijuana's effects on the immune systems of mice, blowfish and human beings. If anyone should be able to answer the question that has surrounded pot for decades -- How bad is it for you? -- it should be Klein. Klein, 66, a tall, courtly professor of immunology and molecular medicine, can tell you he is very close to solving a few puzzles about the connection between cannabinoids -- the active compounds in marijuana -- and common allergies. But like other researchers in the field, Klein says marijuana's health effects remain a daunting mystery. [continues 1719 words]
Medical-marijuana Backers Call N.J.'s Draft Regulations Too Strict. The State Says It Just Wants To Be Careful. The wait for access to medical marijuana has been excruciating for Jennifer Lande. Long-untreated Lyme disease paired with genetic complications cause Lande chronic pain. Her muscles are wasting, and her digestive system doesn't work properly. On good days, the 28-year-old Medford woman, who once enjoyed camping and hiking, walks with a cane. On bad days, she's bedridden. Marijuana, she said, could ease the suffering and slow her weight loss. [continues 1211 words]
Medical grower hopes to impact the market - and make some cash On a recent afternoon in Kensington, Michael Sautman was talking on one phone with a reporter when another phone started ringing with a call from Israel, where his company is competing to grow medical marijuana on behalf of the government. Sautman is the American CEO of Bedrocan International, one of the first transnational marijuana enterprises, and its arrival in the East Bay this year demonstrates just how important the local cannabis economy has become on a global scale. As Oakland and Berkeley gear up to offer commercial pot cultivation permits, Sautman and his colleagues aim to position themselves in the rapidly expanding marketplace of "cannabusinesses," make money and help professionalize the industry. Ultimately, Sautman's vision is to use the American pharmaceutical drug-approval process to legalize marijuana nationwide. [continues 452 words]
STOP BLOWING smoke. It's time to inhale. Cancer patients, people with AIDS, victims of Lou Gehrig's disease and others have waited long enough. They were supposed to be allowed to smoke medical marijuana starting in October. Thirteen other states already allow it, and New Jersey became the 14th back in January, when the Legislature passed the nation's strictest law and then-Gov. Jon Corzine signed it. But then Governor Christie pushed back the start date to January 2011, in a move befitting a prosecutor, because he wanted "to do it the right way," his spokesman said. [continues 313 words]
After more than four hours, the Loveland City Council ended discussion about medical marijuana dispensaries in the city with a 7-2 vote early Wednesday morning to suspend the licensing of such businesses, unless Loveland voters decide otherwise this November. A slew of passionate residents spoke to the council Tuesday night in defense of legal, licensed marijuana dispensaries. Many claimed to be card-carrying patients; others were business owners. Some admitted purchasing marijuana illegally before it was available as a legal medical treatment. [continues 957 words]
Rickey Yuhre didn't need an $8.7 million California medical marijuana study to tell him that pot eased his suffering. The 53-year-old former diesel truck mechanic and welder has pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic and debilitating disease of the lungs. He has fused vertebrae in his neck due to severe nerve damage. Pain meds and relaxants - Oxycontin, Vicodin, Neurontin, Valium - only turned his insides out with nausea. And so he started using a special "vapor box" to medicate with marijuana without smoking. [continues 1356 words]
A Historic Day Has Been Taken Over by Stoners and Others in the Pro-Hemp Camp Ah yes: This Day in History. April 20 is notoriously Adolf Hitler's birthday, the anniversary of the 1776 siege of Boston, of successful pasteurization in 1864, and of the horrible massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. It is also America's fastest-growing holiday, known as 4/20. Call it National Stoners' Day. It started, of course, in California, almost four decades ago, when a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School supposedly congregated at 4:20 p.m. every day to smoke weed next to a statue of Louis Pasteur. (In my line of work, we call this a story too good to check.) 4/20 observances gradually spread to college campuses and have even been coopted by Hollywood. Two years ago, the memorably awful movie "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" opened on 4/20. [continues 572 words]
The Customers: An Inside Look At London's Marijuana Trade Exported to the U.S., to rave customer reviews, the huge pot crop secretly grown in London homes fuels crime and trade in harder drugs back home, Randy Richmond reports. Police are left to close the dangerous loop on the 'vicious circle.' The smoker and the drug cop see the different sides of London marijuana. The smoker offers this critique on a website, at marijuanareviews.com. "Beautiful . . . simply beautiful. Very intense rich coverage and covered in multi-shade orange hairs," writes the reviewer. [continues 771 words]
Pain can saturate one's entire being. This hit home recently when my mother endured bouts of chemotherapy for stomach cancer. Drugs to relieve her relentless nausea offered little benefit. As with countless other patients, her medicine made matters worse. For patients in intractable pain, time is not on their side. Therefore, for supporters, New York's pending legalization of the medical provision and use of marijuana is timely. Meanwhile, the debate continues. Good ethics requires good facts, as in accurate, relevant and evidence-based. Clearly, cannabis' history of illegal use and association with lethal drugs has overshadowed its supposed therapeutic value in alleviating chemotherapy-induced nausea, reducing glaucoma's intraocular pressure, mitigating AIDS symptoms and relieving chronic pain. Furthermore, its psychoactive component spawns fears of dependency and abuse, although authorized stimulants, antidepressants and analgesics also produce highs and lows. [continues 505 words]
Since the early 1990s, Jean Marlowe has smoked marijuana. She's been arrested four times and spent time in federal prison. It's something she doesn't mind people knowing. Marlowe, executive director of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network, a licensed nonprofit organization based in Mill Spring, advocates for legislation to allow people to use marijuana for medical purposes. The organization's goal is to educate the public about medical marijuana legislation in North Carolina. Marlowe spoke about the issue Thursday at a Civitan Club of Salisbury meeting. Along with Marlowe, club members also heard from Perry Parks, the veterans outreach director for the Network. [continues 473 words]
Cleaning up meth labs in the state last year cost millions of dollars, the head of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics said. In Mississippi, it costs from $2,500 to $7,000 to clean up a meth lab, said director Marshall Fisher. In 2009, more than 620 meth labs were seized in the state, which translates to a cost of between $1.5 million and $4.3 million. But the overall cost of cleaning up everything about meth use is virtually immeasurable, experts say. [continues 462 words]
The first U.S. clinical trials in more than 20 years on the medical efficacy of marijuana found that pot helps relieve pain and muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis and certain neurological conditions, according to a report released Wednesday by a UC research center. The results of five state-funded scientific clinical trials came 14 years after California voters passed a law approving marijuana for medical use and more than 10 years after the state Legislature passed a law that created the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UC San Diego, which conducted the studies. [continues 563 words]
Cannabis Grown for Research Through Contract With Federal Government OXFORD -- It's the smell - pungent and slightly citrusy-that first greets visitors to Mahmoud ElSohly's office on the University of Mississippi campus. Next are pictures lining the hallways of the bright green plants ElSohly has researched for 35 years as chief cultivator in the nation's only legal marijuana farm. The University of Mississippi Marijuana Project provides marijuana by the bale to licensed researchers throughout the nation. They study the drug through a federal contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. [continues 798 words]
Despite the Obama administration's tacit support of more liberal state medical marijuana laws, the federal government still discourages research into the medicinal uses of smoked marijuana. That may be one reason that -- even though some patients swear by it - -- there is no good scientific evidence that legalizing marijuana's use provides any benefits over current therapies. Lyle E. Craker, a professor of plant sciences at the University of Massachusetts, has been trying to get permission from federal authorities for nearly nine years to grow a supply of the plant that he could study and provide to researchers for clinical trials. [continues 1057 words]
The War on Drugs continues, four decades after President Richard Nixon commenced hostilities. President Barack Obama--the third president in a row to have used illicit substances in his youth--is no drug warrior. However, he seems unlikely to challenge the disastrous new prohibition. The president has, however, ended the federal campaign against medical marijuana, ordering administration officials to respect state laws legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes. This policy will grow increasingly important as more states allow use of med-pot (for instance, in November Maine voters legalized medical marijuana dispensaries). Congress should approve legislation introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), codifying administration policy into law. [continues 844 words]
Local Growers Give An Inside Look AT A Booming Multimillion-dollar Industry The benevolent outlaw "Nobody produces any better weed than we do here," says Raul G. Raul, a pot grower whose farm is somewhere between Santa Paula and Ojai. Raul likes to think of himself as a benevolent outlaw, supplying "medical" marijuana to clinics and "slanging [dealing] a little on the side to make people happy." His plants are gorgeous, even (or maybe even more so) to a man in recovery who hasn't touched bud in 11 years. Some are easily 15 feet tall, with the sexiest flowers this side of Holland. [continues 2480 words]
Advocates Say Time Is Right For Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act An unusual world record was set last month by 56-year-old Florida stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld when he smoked his 115,000th joint of marijuana grown and supplied by the federal government. He set the record on Nov. 20, which was the 27th anniversary of his first shipment of medical marijuana from the feds. Rosenfeld is among a handful of federal medical marijuana users who receive prescription marijuana monthly under what is known as the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, which came into existence in 1978 when glaucoma patient Robert Randall sued the government to allow him to use the only drug that relieved his glaucoma - marijuana. [continues 1205 words]
For all the debate over whether marijuana has medicinal value, arguments that the drug has significant palliative properties or that it has none suffer from the same flaw: There's little scientific proof either way. This lack of conclusive evidence isn't accidental. In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, classifying marijuana -- which had been illegal since 1937 -- as a Schedule I drug, which meant that it had a high potential for abuse and no medicinal value. In keeping with this position, the government has allowed only the University of Mississippi to cultivate research-grade marijuana, and has so restricted access to its small supply that determining the drug's efficacy is for all intents and purposes impossible. [continues 292 words]
Medical Marijuana Is Giving Activists a Chance to Show How a Legitimized Pot Business Can Work. Is the End of Prohibition Upon Us? When Irvin Rosenfeld, 56, picks me up at the Fort Lauderdale airport, his SUV reeks of marijuana. The vice president for sales at a local brokerage firm, Rosenfeld has been smoking 10 to 12 marijuana cigarettes a day for 38 years, he says. That's probably unusual in itself, but what makes Rosenfeld exceptional is that for the past 27 years, he has been copping his weed directly from the United States government. [continues 7734 words]
Federal Marijuana Studies Should Be Passed Around to Different Institutions When the federal Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a request for proposals, seeking competitive applications for the production, analysis and distribution of "marijuana cigarettes," the request might have seemed a bit unusual to those unfamiliar with Washington's dance around cannabis research. The federal government, after all, is not widely known to support marijuana cultivation. But those in the know just shrugged. The department has issued similar requests every few years to select a contractor to conduct government-approved marijuana research, and with depressing regularity it has then awarded an exclusive contract to the University of Mississippi. For 40 years now, Washington has sought such "competitive applications" and Mississippi "wins" every time. [continues 270 words]
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 4: When the federal Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a request for proposals seeking competitive applications for the production, analysis and distribution of "marijuana cigarettes," the request might have seemed a bit unusual to those unfamiliar with Washington's dance around cannabis research. The federal government, after all, is not widely known to support marijuana cultivation. But those in the know just shrugged. The department has issued similar requests every few years to select a contractor to conduct government-approved marijuana research, and with depressing regularity it has then awarded an exclusive contract to the University of Mississippi. For 40 years now, Washington has sought such "competitive applications," and Mississippi "wins" every time. [continues 133 words]
When the federal Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a request for proposals, seeking competitive applications for the production, analysis and distribution of "marijuana cigarettes," the request might have seemed a bit unusual to those unfamiliar with Washington's dance around cannabis research. The federal government, after all, is not widely known to support marijuana cultivation. But those in the know just shrugged. The department has issued similar requests every few years to select a contractor to conduct government-approved marijuana research, and with depressing regularity it has then awarded an exclusive contract to the University of Mississippi. For 40 years now, Washington has sought such "competitive applications" and Mississippi "wins" every time. [continues 257 words]
When the federal Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a request for proposals, seeking competitive applications for the production, analysis and distribution of "marijuana cigarettes," the request might have seemed a bit unusual to those unfamiliar with Washington's dance around cannabis research. The federal government, after all, is not widely known to support marijuana cultivation. But those in the know just shrugged. The department has issued similar requests every few years to select a contractor to conduct government-approved marijuana research, and with depressing regularity it has then awarded an exclusive contract to the University of Mississippi. For 40 years now, Washington has sought such "competitive applications" and Mississippi "wins" every time. [continues 274 words]
When the federal Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a request for proposals, seeking competitive applications for the production, analysis and distribution of "marijuana cigarettes," the request might have seemed a bit unusual to those unfamiliar with Washington's dance around cannabis research. The federal government, after all, is not widely known to support marijuana cultivation. But those in the know just shrugged. The department has issued similar requests every few years to select a contractor to conduct government-approved marijuana research, and with depressing regularity it has then awarded an exclusive contract to the University of Mississippi. For 40 years now, Washington has sought such "competitive applications" and Mississippi "wins" every time. [continues 271 words]
In a piece published [1] here last week, Rachel Ehrenfeld reports with dismay that the National Institute on Drug Abuse is presently soliciting proposals from contractors to grow marijuana for research and other purposes. Unfortunately, Ehrenfeld's misunderstanding of this request for proposals is so monumental that one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Ehrenfeld suggests that this is some sinister part of "ObamaCare." "For the first time," she writes, "the government is soliciting organizations that can grow marijuana on a 'large scale,' with the capability to 'prepare marijuana cigarettes and related products ... distribute marijuana, marijuana cigarettes and cannabinoids, and other related products' not only for research, but also for 'other government programs.'" [continues 799 words]
I'd like you to meet Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, the only person in the United States who can grow tons of marijuana and not worry the Feds will bust him. If your company wants to do research on marijuana, he's the guy to see. Dr. ElSohly's lab at the University of Mississippi has an exclusive contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which supplies the pot to approved researchers who study its ill effects. Despite the federal government's efforts to suppress marijuana's positive aspects for the last 72 years, researchers everywhere watch with interest as Big Pharma gets involved with the controversial herb and its therapeutic qualities. [continues 626 words]
Pricey pharmaceutical-marketing newsletters have touted cannabis-derived drugs as the next blockbuster for the industry, but the biggest companies are primarily researching drugs whose effect is the opposite of the cannabis herb. Numerous drug researchers are trying to develop medications that replicate the herb's therapeutic effects without the harm of inhaling smoke and the side effect of getting people high. Others are looking into cannabinoid agonists, drugs that enhance the body's natural cannabinoid system -- or cannabinoid antagonists, which disrupt it -- and have been the pharmaceutical industry's main focus. Despite the millions of medical-marijuana users, both U.S. government restrictions and drug companies' need for exclusive ownership have limited research into herbal cannabis. [continues 2241 words]
The topic of marijuana use stirs strong emotions in our society. Our kids are very confused about marijuana because parents, media, and other adolescents have presented a very mixed message. The message from some adults is that marijuana is dangerous and should not be used. While some other parents argue it's no big deal and should be legalized or decriminalized. The purpose of this article is to provide some facts about marijuana and to encourage parents to talk to their kids about drugs on an ongoing basis. [continues 354 words]
They say that every action spurs an opposite reaction. Well, that certainly seems to be the case in Congress. Just days after Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Barney Frank, along with 13 cosponsors, reintroduced HR 2835, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act of 2009 in Congress, Republican Rep. Mark Kirk (Illinois) has called for federal legislation to sentence certain first-time marijuana offenders to up to 25 years in prison. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk to push tougher sentences for more-potent marijuana via The Chicago Tribune [continues 829 words]
"This ain't your grandfather's or your father's marijuana. This will hurt you. This will addict you. This will kill you."- Mark R. Trouville, DEA Miami, speaking to the Associated Press (June 22, 2007) Government claims that today's pot is more potent, and thus more dangerous to health, than ever before must be taken with a grain of salt. Federal officials have made similarly dire assertions before. In a 2004 Reuters News Wire story, government officials alleged, "Pot is no longer the gentle weed of the 1960s and may pose a greater threat than cocaine or even heroin." (Anti-drug officials failed to explain why, if previous decades' pot was so "gentle" and innocuous, police still arrested you for it.) [continues 674 words]
Tavis Smiley, Guest Host SMILEY: The president takes action and has some asking this -- is he taking a turn to the right? Plus, will Obama make history and push to make marijuana use legal? Not if opponents can help it. Marijuana -- the debate with Montel Williams, Stephen Baldwin and others next on LARRY KING LIVE. Good evening. I'm Tavis Smiley sitting in for Larry tonight. SMILEY: President Obama yesterday, speak of the president, also, as we all know by now, held an online town hall meeting yesterday. He noted the Internet community had a high interest in having him answer a question on legalizing marijuana to help the economy. So he addressed it. [continues 3460 words]
In 2007 more than 775,000 people were arrested in the United States for possession of marijuana. That year Elvy Musikka was among only four people to get their supply from the federal government. Each year the 66-year-old Eugene resident receives several tins, each containing 300 marijuana cigarettes grown by the federal government at the University of Mississippi. She qualified following her arrest for growing marijuana. Her doctors testified that without it she would go blind. "I wanted to go to court because I really don't believe there is any government that has the right to demand blindness and suffering from their patients," Musikka said. "That's who they're supposed to protect." [continues 625 words]
In 2007, more than 775,000 people were arrested in the United States for possession of marijuana. In that same year, four people received their supply of the very same drug from the U.S. government. Elvy Musikka was one of them. Musikka, a 66-year-old Eugene resident by way of Florida, each year receives several tins, each containing 300 marijuana cigarettes grown by the federal government at the University of Mississippi. She was the third person, and the first woman, to qualify to receive the government-grown product. [continues 926 words]
The attorney general should heed calls to end the DEA's obstruction of serious research into the medicinal value of marijuana. At the heart of the debate about marijuana's medicinal value is a dearth of academic research into its therapeutic properties. For 40 years, the federal government has frustrated such study by restricting cultivation of marijuana for research to a single source, the University of Mississippi. Most recently, the Bush administration denied the application of a well-regarded botanist at the University of Massachusetts to establish another cultivation facility, despite a ruling by an administrative law judge determining that it should go forward. [continues 306 words]
The letter from Bruce Dunn in The Daily Star, "Marijuana research not allowed by DEA," on Feb. 17 is right on the money. There is one misstatement, however. Dunn says, "The DEA is a nutsy organization that grows pot on its Mississippi farm and sends it to three Americans who have medical conditions that no other drug will help." That the DEA is a "nutsy organization" is true, it is the "grows pot on its Mississippi farm" that is in error. [continues 116 words]
Unknown to most students, some of their professors have been advocating the growing of marijuana on campus since 2001. This movement took a blow earlier this month when the Drug Enforcement Administration rejected University of Massachusetts Professor Lyle Craker's request to become a marijuana manufacturer on Jan. 12. Craker, a horticulturist in the Department of Plant, Soil and Insect sciences submitted his application in 2001 to receive a license to grow large amounts of marijuana in a controlled environment to further study its effects for medical use. [continues 469 words]
During the campaign, President Obama said he would stop federal raids of medical marijuana clubs in states (like California) that had passed medical marijuana laws. Yet federal agents raided medical marijuana dispensaries, including the Patient to Patient Collective in South Lake Tahoe, two days after his inauguration. The Tahoe Daily Tribune reported that agents seized between 5 and 10 pounds of marijuana. The Marijuana Policy Project, which wants to legalize marijuana, accused the Drug Enforcement Administration of "defying" Obama's position on medical marijuana and "called on the president to immediately replace Bush administration holdovers at DEA. [continues 509 words]
During the campaign, President Obama said he would stop federal raids of medical marijuana clubs in states (like California) that had passed medical-marijuana laws. Yet federal agents raided medical-marijuana dispensaries, including the Patient-to-Patient Collective in South Lake Tahoe, two days after his inauguration. The Tahoe Daily Tribune reported that agents seized between 5 and 10 pounds of marijuana. The Marijuana Policy Project, which wants to legalize marijuana, accused the Drug Enforcement Administration of "defying" Obama's position on medical marijuana and "called on the president to immediately replace Bush administration holdovers at DEA. [continues 527 words]
He Can't Grow Weed for Medical Research, DEA Says Despite strong support from Capitol Hill big shots, professor Lyle Craker got a big thumbs down from the Drug Enforcement Administration last week in his bid to grow marijuana for medical research. A horticulturalist and head of the medicinal plant program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Craker challenged the government's monopoly on the production and distribution of the plant at its growing facility at the University of Mississippi, reported The Associated Press. [continues 71 words]
If good research leads to societal benefits, government should not believe it has cornered the market on wisdom and thwart it from taking place. Unfortunately, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration won't allow a University of Massachusetts professor to grow marijuana for medical research, saying only the government can produce and distribute the drug for such purposes. The DEA said Professor Lyle Craker, a horticulturist at UMass Amherst, didn't prove that the government's involvement has led to "inadequate" research. [continues 197 words]
Growing Pot for Research Guns blazing as they head for the exit, the Bush gang has blasted the hopes of Lyle Craker, a UMass Amherst botany professor who applied in June, 2001 for a DEA license to grow marijuana for FDA-approved medical research. On Jan. 12 Craker got a formal letter of denial from DEA Administrator Michele Leonhartt. Mahmoud ElSohly of the University of Mississippi remains America's only legal grower, as far as the feds are concerned. Some of the destructive regulations promulgated by Bush in recent months may be reversible, but the DEA's rejection of Craker appears to be final. Lawyers are exploring the appeal options, according to Rick Doblin, who organized legal and political support for Craker. Doblin didn't sound optimistic on the phone Jan. 13. [continues 2212 words]
The US Drug Enforcement Administration has rejected the bid of a researcher at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who wants to create the second laboratory in the nation authorized to grow marijuana for medical research. The ruling was released yesterday, nearly two years after a federal administrative law judge recommended that Lyle Craker, a horticultural professor who specializes in medicinal plants, be allowed to grow marijuana for medical research. The DEA decision called the current supply of marijuana for research "adequate and uninterrupted" and said a second laboratory would not be in the public interest. [continues 158 words]
Q. What exactly does the marijuana project do? A. Though cannabis had been used by man for thousands of years, it wasn't until 1964 that the actual chemical structure of the active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol -- THC -- was determined. That stimulated new research on the plant. At this laboratory, which began in 1968, we often investigate marijuana's chemistry. We also have a farm where we grow cannabis for federally approved researchers. Our material is employed in clinical studies around the country, to see if the active ingredient in this plant is useful for pain, nausea, glaucoma, for AIDS patients and so on. For these tests, researchers need standardized material for cigarettes or THC pills. We grow the cannabis as contractors for the National Institute on Drug Abuse -- NIDA. And the only researchers who can get our material are those with special permits from the Drug Enforcement Administration and NIDA. We have visitors at the building now and then who ask, "Oh, do you give samples?" We say, "No!" [continues 721 words]
