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<TITLE>LA Times: End the Government's Marijuana Research Monopoly</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>MAPS <B>Members</B>, <B>Supporters</B>, and <B>Friends</B>,<BR>
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We are encouraged that today’s <I>Los Angeles Times</I> features an editorial strongly supporting Professor Lyle Craker’s proposed MAPS-sponsored medical marijuana production facility!<BR>
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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 <I>Washington Post</I>, <I>Boston Globe</I>, and dozens of news outlets around the US have brought MAPS’ work to the attention of thousands of readers across the country. Below, we’ve posted a sampling of the past week’s articles and editorials about Prof. Craker’s MAPS-sponsored efforts to set the groundwork for long-suppressed FDA clinical trials to determine whether marijuana meets the FDA’s standards for safety and efficacy.<BR>
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While raising public awareness has long-term benefits, history has shown that it isn’t enough to win over the DEA. Before reading these articles, I’d like to tell you about two ways that you can make a tangible difference in the outcome of MAPS’ marijuana research initiative:<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:16.0px'><B><I>1.</I></B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> Make your voice heard! If you haven’t already, <B>contact your Congressional Representative</B> to urge him/her to sign Rep. John Olver’s (D-MA) and Dana Rohrabacher’s (R-CA) Congressional Sign-On Letter to DEA in support of MAPS and Prof. Craker. <BR>
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<B>Here’s how</B>: <I><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html#bipartisan">http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html#bipartisan</a><BR>
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2. </B></SPAN></FONT></I><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>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. <BR>
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<B>You can make a difference</B> by making a contribution, large or small, at:</SPAN><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'> <I><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/catalog">http://www.maps.org/catalog</a></U></I> <BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="1"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9.0px'>And now...<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:16.0px'><B><I><U>MAPS</U></I></B></SPAN></FONT><B><U><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> in the</SPAN><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><I> </I></SPAN></FONT><I><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:18.0px'>Media<BR>
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<I>Washington Post</I> (also appeared in the <I>San Francisco Chronicle</I>)<BR>
<B>"Researchers Press DEA to Let Them Grow Marijuana"<BR>
</B><I><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1332&fmt=page">http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1332&fmt=page</a><BR>
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</U>Associated Press</I> (as published in the <I>Boston Globe</I> and over 50 other publications)<BR>
<B>"UMass professor seeks to grow medical marijuana"<BR>
</B><I><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1330&fmt=page">http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1330&fmt=page</a><BR>
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<I>Los Angeles Times<BR>
</I><B>“Ending the Marijuana Monopoly”<BR>
</B><I><U><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-marijuana31may31,1,94642.story?coll=la-news-comment&ctrack=1&cset=true">http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-marijuana31may31,1,94642.story?coll=la-news-comment&ctrack=1&cset=true</a><BR>
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John Tierney’s<I> TierneyLab</I> (part of the online edition of the <I>New York Times</I>)<BR>
<B>"Marijuana Researchers Make Progress in the Lab, but not in Washington"<BR>
</B><I><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1334&fmt=page">http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1334&fmt=page</a><BR>
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<I>Honolulu Star Bulletin<BR>
</I><B>"Editorial: Medical Marijuana Research Should Not Be Hampered"<BR>
</B><I><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1329&fmt=page">http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1329&fmt=page</a><BR>
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</U>FOR </I></SPAN><I><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>COMPLETE BACKGROUND</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> ON THE CASE, SEE: </SPAN><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html">http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html</a><BR>
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<B>Researchers Press DEA to Let Them Grow Marijuana<BR>
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By Marc Kaufman<BR>
<I>Washington Post</I> Staff Writer<BR>
Thursday, May 24, 2007; A03<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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"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 <B>Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies</B>, which has fought for years for access to government-controlled supplies to test possible medical uses of marijuana.<BR>
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"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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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."<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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<I>Los Angeles Times<BR>
</I>Thursday May 31, 2007<BR>
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<B>ENDING THE MARIJUANA MONOPOLY<BR>
Federal Officials Should Allow Competition in Growing the Drug for Needed Studies on Its Medical Use.<BR>
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SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Editorial Pages Desk; Part A<BR>
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LENGTH: 420 words<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Palatino"><B>Jag Davies<BR>
</B></FONT></SPAN><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Director of Communications<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11.0px'><B><I>The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies<BR>
</I></B></SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'>MAPS :: 10424 Love Creek Road :: Ben Lomond, CA 95005<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="6"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:20.0px'>Your Support is Needed! </SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:16.0px'><B><I><U><a href="http://www.maps.org/catalog">http://www.maps.org/catalog</a><BR>
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