Prof. Craker Medical Marijuana Campaign

Dear Senator ________,

My name is ______ and I am your constituent from ________. I am writing to urge you to stand up for scientific research into the potential risks and benefits of the medical uses of marijuana during the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Michele Leonhart to be the next DEA Administrator. It is important for you to understand that Ms. Leonhart, Acting Administrator of the DEA, is responsible for the current obstruction of privately-funded research. She does not deserve to be confirmed if she does not reverse her position and places science over politics when it comes to evaluating the medical uses of marijuana.

On January 14th 2009, six days before President Obama was inaugurated, Ms. Leonhart, in her role as DEA Acting Administrator, rejected the February 12, 2007 recommendation of the DEA Administrative Law Judge Bittner that it would be in the public interest for the DEA to license Professor Lyle Craker, with the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Medicinal Plant Program, to grow marijuana for federally-approved, privately-funded research.

What I want, which I hope you want as well, is for the controversy over the medical use of marijuana to be resolved by scientific research evaluated by the FDA. At present, privately-funded research is obstructed by the DEA-defended monopoly on the supply of marijuana for research held by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). While federally-regulated scientific research is still being blocked by an unjustified federal monopoly, fourteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Please understand, the spread of medical marijuana laws across this country are the direct result of the federal government blocking the development of marijuana as an FDA-approved medicine.

On a date still to be scheduled, Michele Leonhart will come before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing as DEA Administrator. I call on you, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to ask Acting DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart to grant Prof. Craker's Motion to Reconsider, and accept the Administrative Law Judge's recommendation to end the federal monopoly on the supply of marijuana for federally-regulated research. Should she refuse to commit to this course of action, I urge you to reject her nomination.

Thank You, ______________

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