Pubdate: Thu, 25 Aug 2011
Source: Republican, The (Springfield, MA)
Copyright: 2011 The Republican
Contact: http://www.masslive.com/contactus/
Website: http://www.masslive.com/republican/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3075
Author: Robert Rizzuto

DEA REJECTS UMASS PROFESSOR LYLE CRAKER'S BID TO GROW MARIJUANA FOR 
FEDERALLY-REGULATED MEDICAL RESEARCH

AMHERST - One local professor's attempt to obtain federal permission
to grow marijuana for research into its potential medical benefits has
been rejected by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The DEA has previously said that permitting anyone other than the
government to grow marijuana would lead to greater illegal use of the
drug.

Lyle Craker, a UMass professor of plant, soil and insect sciences in
Amherst, has been trying to obtain a license since 2001 to further
potentially life-saving research.

Since he first filed his application with the federal government,
Craker has been through legal wrangling that has continued while
movement regarding the medical benefits of marijuana at the federal
level have remained stagnant.

Currently, all marijuana used for any federally-regulated study is
grown by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the University of
Mississippi but researchers have constantly charged that simple
cultivation of the plant is not enough to learn about the benefits
specific strains may have on specific symptoms.

"It would be nice to be able to develop plant material that would be
specific for glaucoma, specific to inhibit vomiting and all those
other things that the plant is credited with doing," Craker told the
Associated Press in March. "Currently, people with ailments are taking
pot shots or they are going to illegal sources, which I suspect most
of them are."

On Aug. 15, the DEA issued its final order rejecting its own
Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner's recommendation that it
would be "in the public interest" to grant Craker a license to grow
marijuana for federally-regulated research.

The road to the ruling last week has been a long one and the rejection
upholds the monopoly held by the National Institute on Drug Abuse on
the supply of marijuana for Food and Drug Administration-regulated
research.

"All we want to do is to produce the material that medical doctors
want to use for tests," Craker said previously. "I'm disappointed in
our system. But I'm not disappointed at what we did. I think our
efforts have brought the problem to the public eye more. ... This is
just the first battle in a war."

Bittner issued her recommendation to license Craker on Feb. 12, 2007,
after extensive hearings. On Jan. 14, 2009, almost two years later and
six days before President Obama's inauguration, DEA Acting
Administrator Michelle Leonhart rejected Bittner's
recommendation.

Following Leonhart's decision, US Sen. John Kerry and the late Sen.
Edward Kennedy wrote the attorney general asking for a review of the
process.

In response, Craker's lawyers filed a series of objections which were
denied in Monday's final order. Craker's only recourse is to appeal
the DEA final ruling in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is
described as a non-profit pharmaceutical company working to develop
whole-plant marijuana into a prescription medicine. MAPS was
supportive of Craker's efforts and planned to finance a growing
facility and the FDA-regulated research of marijuana which would
follow, according to MAPS' website.

In April, the FDA cleared MAPS' proposed landmark study of marijuana
for U.S. military veterans with chronic, treatment-resistant, post
traumatic stress disorder.

"MAPS then submitted the protocol for review by the Public Health
Service and NIDA, a procedure required for marijuana research because
of the NIDA monopoly, but not for studies of any other controlled
substance," MAPS wrote on its website. "Almost four months later, NIDA
is still silent about whether it will agree to sell MAPS marijuana for
the study. Without it, the study cannot go forward."
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MAP posted-by: Matt