Posted on 12/14/2004 2:04:53 PM PST by WKB
A University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor hoping to grow marijuana for research purposes got a preliminary denial from the US Drug Enforcement Administration last week.
Lyle Craker, a horticulturist who specializes in medicinal plants, had won support from both Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry in his quest to grow marijuana legally. Only one American lab, at the University of Mississippi, currently has the legal right to grow marijuana for research, and Craker argued that the Mississippi marijuana is not strong enough and not readily available to researchers.
He first applied to the DEA for permission to grow marijuana more than three years ago. Kennedy and Kerry wrote a letter to the DEA last year saying that the Mississippi lab had an ''unjustified monopoly." Craker and a group that wants to fund his work, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, sued the government last summer. One of their arguments was that the DEA's failure to act on the application was an ''unreasonable delay."
The US Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., asked the government to explain its delay, and instead DEA issued a decision last week. In the decision, DEA said that the University of Mississippi provides researchers ''marijuana of sufficient quantity and quality to meet all their legitimate and authorized research needs in a timely manner."
It also argues that an international treaty says the government can allow only one source for research marijuana. Craker and MAPS can still appeal to a federal administrative judge who makes recommendations to the DEA, but the judge's opinion is not binding, said MAPS president Rick Doblin.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Missippy Pot Ping
Good thing that treaty didn't say ANY marijuana.
We would have to make it illegal, huh?
(Not that I would know from experience, of course.)
I'm not sure how I stand on the topic of drug-legalization in general. I'll admit I smoked my fair share of dope as an college student. But I just cannot see how a government can tell a person what plants they can and cannot grow, nor how a person has to get a license from the government to grow certain types of plants.
I guess that's just the libertarian in me coming out.
(Not that I would know from experience, of course.)
We have some expert Ole Miss grads around here
who do know for sure.
I'll bet this stuff would get the Prof's attention.
Okay, here's a question. In order to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.... why not do it in pill form? It seems that the THC should still be usable.
Hmmmm...when I'm in Oxford for school I can't be too far away from the "weed field." I've always heard about it but I don't know where it is.
Hmmmm...when I'm in Oxford for school I can't be too far away from the "weed field." I've always heard about it but I don't know where it is.
Maybe you could do a little research. :>)
"Only one American lab, at the University of Mississippi, currently has the legal right to grow marijuana for research..."
HA! The one, and only.
Ain't no NE yankee librul takin' that away, either. ;o)
I suppose Mac or UNIX or some other Open Source is better? </sarcasm>
"permission to grow"
???????????????????????
Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived;
God is not mocked:
for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
I wonder if the DEA would allow researching a product (say a spray) that would eliminate the THC in the plant?
"We have some expert Ole Miss grads around here
who do know for sure."
Special pingerooni for the experts. ;o)
If you are barfing it becomes difficult to keep a pill down.
Moreover, why should one be forced into slavery by the
pharmaceutical companies to gain access to a God given
herb?
Been by the Ole Miss field a gazillion times. Have no idea how strong it is, but I know they have stringent procedures for the folks who work that facility.
MM
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