[MAPS] LA Times: End the Government's Marijuana Research Monopoly

[Jag Davies]

MAPS Members, Supporters, and Friends,

We are encouraged that today¹s Los Angeles Times features an editorial
strongly supporting Professor Lyle Craker¹s proposed MAPS-sponsored medical
marijuana production facility!

Now that the ball is in the DEA's court to decide whether to accept or
reject the DEA Administrative Law Judge's Recommended Ruling in favor of
Prof. Craker and MAPS, the media is focusing more than ever on federal
obstruction of medical marijuana research and MAPS' FDA drug development
plan. Over the past week, the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and dozens of
news outlets around the US have brought MAPS¹ work to the attention of
thousands of readers across the country. Below, we¹ve posted a sampling of
the past week¹s articles and editorials about Prof. Craker¹s MAPS-sponsored
efforts to set the groundwork for long-suppressed FDA clinical trials to
determine whether marijuana meets the FDA¹s standards for safety and
efficacy.

While raising public awareness has long-term benefits, history has shown
that it isn¹t enough to win over the DEA. Before reading these articles, I¹d
like to tell you about two ways that you can make a tangible difference in
the outcome of MAPS¹ marijuana research initiative:

1. Make your voice heard! If you haven¹t already, contact your Congressional
Representative to urge him/her to sign Rep. John Olver¹s (D-MA) and Dana
Rohrabacher¹s (R-CA) Congressional Sign-On Letter to DEA in support of MAPS
and Prof. Craker. 

Here¹s how: http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html#bipartisan

2. Now that MAPS' agenda is gathering momentum, support from our private
members is more important than ever. Neither the pharmaceutical industry,
the government, nor the major health foundations are willing to invest at
this time in research with controversial and generic medicines like
marijuana. 

You can make a difference by making a contribution, large or small, at:
http://www.maps.org/catalog


And now...
MAPS in the Media

Washington Post (also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle)
"Researchers Press DEA to Let Them Grow Marijuana"
http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1332&fmt=page

Associated Press (as published in the Boston Globe and over 50 other
publications)
"UMass professor seeks to grow medical marijuana"
http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1330&fmt=page

Los Angeles Times
³Ending the Marijuana Monopoly²
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-marijuana31may31,1,94
642.story?coll=la-news-comment&ctrack=1&cset=true

John Tierney¹s TierneyLab (part of the online edition of the New York Times)
"Marijuana Researchers Make Progress in the Lab, but not in Washington"
http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1334&fmt=page

Honolulu Star Bulletin
"Editorial: Medical Marijuana Research Should Not Be Hampered"
http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1329&fmt=page


FOR COMPLETE BACKGROUND ON THE CASE, SEE:
http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html


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Researchers Press DEA to Let Them Grow Marijuana

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 24, 2007; A03

Armed with a legal decision in their favor, scientists and advocates of
medical research on marijuana pressed the Drug Enforcement Administration
yesterday to allow them to grow their own, saying that pot supplied by the
government is too hard to get and that its poor quality limits their
research.

The proponents said a DEA administrative law judge's recent ruling that it
would be in "the public interest" to have additional marijuana grown -- and
to break the government's monopoly on growing it -- had put them closer to
their goal than ever before.

"The DEA has an opportunity here to live up to its rhetoric, which has been
that marijuana advocates should work on conducting research rather than
filing lawsuits," said Richard Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies, which has fought for years for access
to government-controlled supplies to test possible medical uses of
marijuana.

"It's become more and more obvious that the DEA has been obstructing
potentially beneficial medical research, and now is the time for them to
change," he said.

The agency has opposed petitions that would end the government's marijuana
monopoly, saying that the current system works well and that allowing other
growers could lead to more diversion to illicit use. All the marijuana
produced for research is grown at the University of Mississippi and
distributed through the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

But a petition filed in 2001 by University of Massachusetts agronomy
professor Lyle E. Craker seeking to grow marijuana in his greenhouses has
worked its way through the DEA appeal process and resulted in a ruling
against the agency earlier this year.

The decision by DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner concluding
that Craker should be allowed to grow marijuana for Doblin's group to use in
its research became final last week.

Craker, who has studied medicinal plants for years, joined several other
medical marijuana advocates at DEA headquarters yesterday to highlight the
issue. "Working with medical marijuana seems so similar to the work we're
doing with other medicinal plants that I've never understood the DEA's big
problem with it," said Craker, whose facilities have been examined by DEA
agents to determine if they are sufficiently secure.

Bittner's ruling was strongly supportive of Craker's petition but carries
limited regulatory weight: The final decision on the government's marijuana
monopoly will be made by the deputy administrator of the DEA, and the agency
has already taken strong exception to Bittner's conclusions.

DEA spokesman Garrison K. Courtney said yesterday that "the matter is
currently pending before the DEA, and it would be inappropriate for DEA to
comment at this time."

Doblin, who contacted Craker about growing medical marijuana after he was
turned down by government officials, said the public is losing confidence in
the DEA's oversight of the issue. He said 12 states have legalized medical
marijuana and others are likely to follow soon.

Doblin said that in addition to studying the potential benefits of smoked
marijuana for pain relief and to control nausea in cancer patients and some
symptoms of multiple sclerosis, his group wants to test vaporized marijuana.
Inhaling marijuana vapors could reduce some of the potential risks
associated with smoking it.



****************************************************

Los Angeles Times
Thursday May 31, 2007
                   
ENDING THE MARIJUANA MONOPOLY
Federal Officials Should Allow Competition in Growing the Drug for Needed
Studies on Its Medical Use.

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Editorial Pages Desk; Part A

LENGTH: 420 words

DISCUSSION OF medical marijuana has always been heavy on rhetoric, elisions
and grandiose claims. What it has lacked is reliable research that might
bring some of the discussion into line with reality. This is because access
to the government's monopoly supply of research-grade marijuana is so
restricted that the necessary research is effectively impossible. Now the
Drug Enforcement Administration's chief administrative law judge is
recommending that the federal drug police allow competition in growing
marijuana for research purposes. The administration should follow her
recommendation.

At issue is the supply of research-grade marijuana produced at the
University of Mississippi and overseen by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse. This supply is supposed to be made available to DEA-registered
researchers who have undergone a rigorous review and approval process by the
U.S. Public Health Service. However, both medical marijuana advocates and
scientists say the institute routinely refuses to make its supply available
even to licensed researchers for properly authorized studies. There are at
least two FDA-approved studies that cannot go forward because no research
samples are available.

This leaves researchers -- and the 12 states that have so far approved
marijuana for medical purposes -- in a Catch-22: Drug warriors object that
there is no research demonstrating marijuana's efficacy while preventing
such research from being done. Since 2001, a scientist with the University
of Massachusetts Amherst has vainly petitioned the DEA for permission to
produce, under conditions that even the DEA acknowledges present little risk
of diversion for illicit use, another supply of research-grade marijuana.

In a recent ruling, Judge Mary Ellen Bittner agreed that that request would
be in the public interest. Given its narrow confines, Bittner's
recommendation makes sense. It has no bearing on the DEA's licensing of
researchers, which would remain in place, nor would it remove the burden of
proof on scientists who want access to research-grade marijuana. It would
merely prevent situations in which, the judge noted, legitimate researchers
who have completed all due diligence are still refused access to research
samples.

The benefits of medical marijuana may turn out to be less impressive than
advocates hope. All the more reason that research should be allowed to go
forward, so that we can base the discussion on evidence rather than on the
two sides' vehement -- but factually unsupported -- claims.





Jag Davies
Director of Communications
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
MAPS :: 10424 Love Creek Road :: Ben Lomond, CA 95005

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Your Support is Needed! http://www.maps.org/catalog



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