When I read this information today I almost burst a vein in my forehead. The DEA, and I assume with the encouragement of the Bush Admin formally rejected the University of Massachusetts request to cultivate and study research grade marijuana. Its also worth noting marijuana is the only Schedule 1substance the government does not grant private research permission to. The NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) is the only entity that can grant legal use for research of a controlled substance. And, if you want to study Heroin, LSD, Cocaine, Ecstasy, etc. or any other controlled substance, it will be regularly available for that research through the NIDA. With the DEA Deputy Administrator saying “NO” to pot research, it leaves behind years of hearings, and input from many entities including the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and a DEA Administrative Law Judge issuing an 88 page non-binding report saying it would be “in the publics best interest..” to study marijuana further.
An extremely frustrating decision to say the least. And in my mind the simple fact that other drugs are available, and marijuana is the only rejected substance to be studied, I would say is CRIMINAL. More so than any pot offense that can be thrown at you. These people who just don’t get it are hurting thousands, if not millions of possible medical marijuana users and preventing people from being treated with knowledge of and the creation of a potentially better quality drug.
I really don’t understand how decisions like this are made sometimes, especially when the number one question people are asking our President-elect in these fiscally down trodden times is “When are you gonna legalize marijuana and make some money off of it?”
The rest of the press release is below, and you can find out more and what this means for the near future of pot research on the next John Doe Radio Show.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Â (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.orgWASHINGTON, D.C. – The Bush administration struck a parting shot to legitimate science today as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) refused to end the unique government monopoly over the supply of marijuana available for Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved research. DEA’s final ruling rejected the formal recommendation of DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Mary Ellen Bittner, issued nearly two years ago following extensive legal hearings.
“With one foot out the door, the Bush administration has once again found time to undermine scientific freedom,” said Allen Hopper, litigation director of the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Law Reform Project. “In stubbornly retaining the unique government monopoly over the supply of research marijuana over the objections of DEA’s own administrative law judge, the Bush administration has effectively blocked the proper regulatory channels that would allow the drug to become a wholly legitimate prescription medication.”
The DEA ruling constitutes a formal rejection of University of Massachusetts at Amherst Professor Lyle Craker’s petition, filed initially June 24, 2001, to cultivate research-grade marijuana for use by scientists in FDA-approved studies aimed at developing the drug as a legal, prescription medication… (READ MORE)
~JDR