A judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration ruled that a University of Massachusetts professor should be permitted to grow research-grade marijuana, a press release by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies reported last week, according to The Washington Post. Several AU professors and students said the government should support such research plans as long as the use of the crop is monitored.
Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled it "would be in the public interest" to allow University of Massachusetts- Amherst Professor Lyle E. Craker to grow marijuana for medical research purposes, according to The Post.
The project would fall under the sponsorship with the non-profit organization Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies that sponsors research on marijuana and other drugs, the Post reported.
Craker told The Eagle that his expertise is in horticulture, which is the science of growing plants and flowers, and therefore he would only grow the plant to make it available to laboratories.
Carey Myers, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the government should support Craker's project if he proves that there is no diversion for recreational purposes. For example, a team of government representatives could randomly perform inspection visits and require that the scientists turn over any dead plants, Myers said.
Stephen McAvoy, an AU biology professor, said he was not surprised at the government's reaction because granting Craker the license could weaken their policy that no private institution manufacture controlled substances.
"It might open the door to grant other exceptions," he said.
However, Catherine Shaeff, another biology professor, said the government's response was "short-sighted" because it is based on social concerns and not on the effects of the plant on health.
Despite the DEA's reluctance to grant Craker's license, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to support the use of marijuana to alleviate pain, nausea and muscular spasticity, which are stiff muscular reflexes, associated with AIDS, cancer and other illnesses, the Post reported.
However, in 2001 the FDA declared marijuana "has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S.," the Boston Globe reported.
Furthermore, the DEA said researchers who wish to work with cannabis have access to the crop from a federally supervised farm at the University of Mississippi, the Boston Globe reported.
In response to that argument, Craker, an agronomist who has grown several other medicinal plants for study, told The Eagle that the marijuana crop in Mississippi is of poor quality and therefore limits scientific research on the plant. He said the marijuana from Mississippi lacks the main active ingredient of cannabinoids.
Researchers of a 2007 study with AIDS patients on the benefits of smoking marijuana told the Post the government crop has been chemically cleansed of cannabinoids. The federally-grown crop has about one-fourth of the potency of "quality street marijuana," the Post reported.
Although this ruling is a major win for Craker, who has been embroiled in a six-year battle with the DEA for the license, the victory remains elusive.
The DEA is not obligated to uphold the judge's ruling, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies President Rick Doblin told the Post. However, the DEA must make a formal reply to Bittner's 87-page detailed suggestions in March, The Post reported.
The White House called past clinical studies on marijuana flawed because they only focused on the benefits. The White House told The Post these studies did not take into account the negative health impacts of smoking the plant such as the exposure to carcinogens present in the smoke.
