Senators support proposal to grow marijuana for research
Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and John F. Kerry (D.-Mass) have asked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to approve a proposal that would allow the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to grow marijuana for federally-approved medical marijuana research, the Drug Policy Alliance reported. On Oct. 20, in a letter to the DEA, the senators criticized the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA's) monopoly on marijuana production for research and noted that the manufacture of schedule I and schedule II substances must be provided under competitive conditions, according to federal law.
The lack of competition in marijuana production could result in the use of lower-quality marijuana in research, according to the letter. NIDA currently controls the supply of marijuana for federally-approved research, according to the Drug Policy Alliance.