Pubdate: Thu, 15 Feb 2007
Source: Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco, CA)
Copyright: 2007 The Bay Area Reporter
Contact:  http://www.ebar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/41
Author: Bob Roehr  	   	
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

JUDGE TELLS DEA TO ISSUE LICENSE TO GROW POT FOR RESEARCH

An administrative law judge has ruled that the Drug Enforcement 
Administration should issue a license to a Massachusetts plant 
biologist to allow him to cultivate marijuana for medical research 
purposes. All such materials currently are produced at a facility at 
the University of Mississippi under contract with the National 
Institute on Drug Abuse.

Judge Marry Ellen Bittner concluded that granting the license is 
allowed under international law; "there would be a minimal risk of 
diversion of marijuana;" the current supply of marijuana for research 
purposes is inadequate; and that issuing the license "would be in the 
public interest."

The exhaustive hearings were conducted over multiple days in August 
and December 2005. The 87-page decision, which offers an excellent 
primer on how the federal government regulates marijuana research, 
was released February 12.

The DEA has 20 days in which to either accept the decision and issue 
the license or appeal the decision to the director of the agency.

Lyle E. Craker, Ph.D., filed the lawsuit seeking to grow the 
marijuana. "I've worked with medicinal and aromatic plants for the 
past 20 years. I view medical cannabis as the same as any other 
botanical plant with potential health benefits," he said.

"We need to separate the anecdotal from the tested ... If we don't do 
this, society is going to lose, patients will continue to suffer," he added.

Barbara Roberts, Ph.D., is a former head of the Office of National 
Drug Control Policy and a current board member of the pro-marijuana 
group Americans for Safe Access. She called publication of the study 
demonstrating the effectiveness of cannabis in treating peripheral 
neuropathy, and Bittner's decision, a double blow to those who would 
prohibit such research.

"The government wants to have it both ways, they say the [Abrams] 
study doesn't have scientific rigor, so therefore there is no point 
in going forward. And, by the way, we are not allowing the science to 
go forward either," she said.

Roberts said this is "a wake up call for Congress to hold hearings" 
on the 1999 Institute of Medicine report that supported research into 
the medicinal potential of marijuana. While the organization hopes 
for such hearings, it has yet to identify a member of Congress who 
will lead that activity.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman