Government supply of marijuana is inadequate
RafaMinu
supplies aren't meeting scientific demand, a federal judge has ruled.
In an emphatic but nonbinding opinion, the Drug Enforcement
Administration's own judge is recommending that a University of
Massachusetts professor be allowed to grow a legal pot crop. The real
winners could be those suffering from painful and wasting diseases,
proponents believe.
"The existing supply of marijuana is not adequate," Administrative Law
Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled.
The federal government's 12-acre marijuana plot at the University of
Mississippi provides neither the quantity nor quality scientists need,
researchers contend. While Bittner didn't embrace those criticisms,
she agreed that the system for producing and distributing research
marijuana is flawed.
"Competition in the manufacture of marijuana for research purposes is
inadequate," Bittner determined.
Bittner further concluded that there is "minimal risk of diversion"
from a new marijuana source. Making additional supplies available, she
stated, "would be in the public interest."
The DEA isn't required to follow Bittner's 88-page opinion, and the
Bush administration's anti-drug stance may make it unlikely that the
grass-growing rules will loosen. Both sides can now file further
information before DEA administrators make their ruling.
"We could still be months away from a final decision," DEA spokesman
Garrison Courtney said Tuesday, adding that "obviously, we're going to
take the judge's opinion into consideration."
Still, the ruling is resonating in labs and with civil libertarians.
"(The) ruling is an important step toward allowing medical marijuana
patients to get their medicine from a pharmacy just like everyone
else," said Allen Hopper, an attorney with the American Civil
Liberties Union.
Based in the California seaside town of Santa Cruz, the ACLU's Drug
Law Reform Project has been representing University of Massachusetts
scientist Lyle Craker. Since 2001, Craker has been confronting
numerous bureaucratic and legal obstacles in his request for
permission to grow research-grade marijuana.
An agronomist with a doctorate from the University of Minnesota,
Craker was asked to grow bulk marijuana by a small, five-member group
called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. The
psychedelic studies group wants to research such areas as developing
vaporizers that can efficiently deliver pot smoke.
"This ruling is a victory for science, medicine and the public good,"
Craker said. "I hope that the DEA abides by the decision and grants me
the opportunity to do my job unimpeded by drug war politics."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16690783.htm