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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has rejected a scientist's request to open what would have been the nation's second federally approved marijuana lab.

Lyle Craker, a University of Massachusetts Amherst horticulturist, applied for permission to grow pot eight years ago for researchers conducting U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved studies on the potential benefits of marijuana as medical treatment. Pot has been used to lower pressure buildup in glaucoma (a potentially blinding eye disease), to reduce nausea from cancer treatments and to prevent AIDS-related weight loss. Craker had asked for permission to grow it for research funded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a California nonprofit that wants to develop marijuana into a legal prescription med.

In 2007 DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner recommended that Craker's application be granted, saying that there wasn’t enough pot available for research purposes and that there was "minimal" chance marijuana grown in the proposed lab would be used for non-research reasons. But DEA Deputy Administrator Michele Leonhart disagreed, characterizing the country's supply of research-grade pot as "adequate and uninterrupted."

Leonhart's 118-page opinion was released yesterday by Craker's attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Drug Law Reform Project
 
“I am saddened that the DEA is ignoring the best interests of so many seriously ill people who wish for scientific investigations that could lead to development of the marijuana plant as a prescription medicine,” Craker said in a statement. “Patients with serious illnesses deserve legitimate research that might establish medical marijuana as a fully legal, FDA-approved treatment. That effort has been dealt a serious blow.”

DEA spokesman Michael Sanders told ScientificAmerican.com that the agency wouldn’t comment on Leonhart's decision. "The document speaks for itself," he said.

Allen Hopper, the ACLU drug-reform project's litigation director, charged that the move was politically motivated and part of "a cynical attempt to maintain the Bush administration's elevation of politics over science."

The only source of government-grown weed is the University of Mississippi's Marijuana Project. Craker is among scientists who have complained that the pot grown there is hard to come by and of inconsistent chemical makeup. Steve Gust, special assistant to the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which sponsors the project, told ScientificAmerican.com last month that more marijuana is grown there than is requested by scientists and that its quality is consistent.

Image of marijuana leaf © iStockphoto/Vladimir Vladimirov

8 Comments

1. 1. Sunflower Pipes 04:29 PM 1/13/09

   We need to change the policies of this country so that they make some sense. Any kid can score some at any high school across America in heartbeat, but scientists are not allowed to grow and study it. People will look back at our time in history and wonder how we could be so stupid.
   
   http://sunflowerpipes.com

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2. 2. PeaceGirl 04:56 PM 1/13/09

   The DEA has a major financial incentive to avoid marijuana research, their survival. What would happen to the drug war should the United States decriminalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. DEA logic says it leads to complete decriminalization. Which lead to local farming. Which leads to a massive reduction in usage cost. Which leads to a reduction on foreign dependence. Which leads to a reduction in need -- for the DEA. Their survival depends on keeping drugs illegal and deemed "evil".
   
   The "drug war" has only been profitable for the police state. Illegal drug use has barely changed over the course of thirty years, other than to rise. The massive costs in freedom, lives and political involvement in foreign countries has only benefited those who's lives depend on the "war", the DEA and CIA.
   
   Until we grow up as a nation, and reduce our fear mongering, there will be little incentive for the government to promote a non-pharmaceutical solution to any medical problems, especially those solved by "listed" illegal substances. We're not that brave, nor that intelligent.

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3. 3. silvrhairdevil 06:03 PM 1/13/09

   It is mind-boggling to think of the amount of harm the DEA has done over the years.
   
   From the promoting of the environment that allows drug cartels to siphon off tons of US $100 bills, to the stifling of legitimate research into pain control.
   
   Perish forbid a citizen may abuse a drug for a party in their own head.
   What a cost has been extracted from the American people by this partisan organization.
   
   No greater evil has been perpetrated than by good people thinking they are doing right.

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4. 4. rsteeb 09:58 PM 1/13/09

   "No way, dude"? Can you be any more puerile? This atrocity is as serious as cancer. It's CANNABIS. As in "Any nation with thriving alcohol and tobacco industries lacks the moral authority to issue a stern look at Cannabis."

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5. 5. Lario in reply to Sunflower Pipes 10:09 PM 1/13/09

   well alot of people out there who think marijuana shouldn't be legalized,... well you're all phuked

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6. 6. BudKine 02:34 PM 1/15/09

   The DEA was wrong to deny UMASS a license to grow its own cannabis for research. Cannabis has huge therapeutic potential and our government should not hinder independent research. We should be learning all that we can about this plant, its dangers and benefits.
   
   The DEA is the wrong agency to handle cannabis. It should be passed to the ATF and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. These are dire economic times. Instead of pumping $15 billion annually into law enforcement and prohibition, we could open up entire new industries with industrial hemp (farming, textiles, petroleum alternative, etc.), medical marijuana production and distribution, to bring relief to seriously sick and dying people, and even a recreational cannabis industry like alcohol and tobacco. Imagine the jobs created and tax revenue generated from these industries. Lets created jobs and revenue.
   
   Regulating and taxing cannabis would eliminate the gang element associated with cannabis grown on our public lands where they use dangerous pesticides and fertilizers and divert streams, and are often armed and dangerous and a threat to hikers and hunters. Lets eliminate the Al Capones of cannabis. Legalize.
   

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7. 7. UrpGag 07:10 PM 1/19/09

   Obama must deal with this ugly cancerous prohibition like FDR did, by destroying the legal system that supports all these foolish pensions and the hiddeous theft of the cash flow that ought to go to the local schools and roads and is actually going to CIA scum and the DEA trash. We need to take the teeth out of these two rogue government agencies and that is done by removing their secret money supply that comes from them selling all the dope to us when we could be selling it to ourselves like we ought to be doing and thereby subsidizing our schools etc. fuck the dea and fuck the cia. you jerks are a terrible disgrace to our whole nation and you have really hurt alot of people that did not have it coming.

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8. 8. Rodney 07:42 PM 2/6/09

   What if hemp oil was a cancer cure?surly nobody would want to stop the treatment,or would they?See YouTube and search Rick Simpson and what he is doing in Nova Scotia. As to legalizing marijuana in the states,never happen,with the good church people saving us all and the billions made in confiscations by law in all states. And the NAFTA treaty gave Canada the right to grow hemp to export to the USA and we couldn't/wouldn't grow it.

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