This isn't cannabis, you know? - Well...the government says all I can study is these soybeans.
The New York Times is reporting a story about the frustrations of researchers trying to get permission to study Medical Cannabis. A professor of plant sciences at the University of Massachusetts has been trying to get permission from federal authorities for nine years to grow a supply of the plant that he could study and provide to researchers for clinical trials. The DEA has refused, even after the agency’s own administrative law judge ruled in 2007 that the application should be approved.
Marijuana is the only major drug for which the federal government controls the only legal research supply, and the University of Mississippi grows the nation’s only federally approved marijuana. If they wish to investigate marijuana, researchers must apply to the National Institute on Drug Abuse to use the Mississippi marijuana and must get approvals from a special Public Health Service panel, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration. Researchers investigating LSD, Ecstasy and other illegal drugs can use any of a number of suppliers licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
If a researcher wants to use a variety of cannabis that the University of Mississippi does not grow they are out of luck, even though patients know that there are many different strains that work differently on their symptoms. The Food and Drug Administration in 1985 approved Marinol, a prescription pill of marijuana’s active ingredient, T.H.C. Although a few small-scale studies done decades ago suggest that smoked marijuana may prove effective when Marinol does not, no conclusive research has confirmed this finding. Until there is a major policy shift, the critics of medical marijuana can always use the weapon that there is no good scientific evidence that legalizing cannabis use could provide any benefits over current therapies.
Montana Legislator Says He Would Still Push to Repeal Medical Marijuana Law
Marijuana Busts on Ohio Highways Way Up from Last Year
Trayvon Martin had Traces of Marijuana in His System According to Autopsy
Oregon Attorney General Race Becomes Victory for Marijuana Activists
Tiny Spanish Town Set To Become Europe’s Largest Cannabis Producer
NYC Arrests for Marijuana Up for the 7th Straight Year
Oregon Case Reinforces Definition of Usable Marijuana
Fast and Furious Program Sparks Lawsuit and Testimony from Attorney General
Butane Hash Oil Extraction Tube Causes Devestating Delay Fighting Fire
Drought In Mexico Leads to Drop in Marijuana Production
Two Different Medical Marijuana Proposals In Ohio
Several Medical Marijuana Bills to Consider in Hawaii
Veterans Group Offended by Veteran’s For Weed Group
Montana Judge Says Federal Law Rules Supreme in State Medical Marijuana Industry
NM Woman Will Be Compensated for Her Destroyed Plants
January 25th – A Medical Marijuana Day of Action
New Jersey Supreme Court Will Not Hear MS Patient’s Marijuana Case
Polish Lawmaker Threatens to Smoke Marijuana in Parliament
Arizona Governor Will Allow Dispensaries Now that Lawsuit Was Dismissed
Washington Dispensary Bill Addresses I-502 Concerns
California Supreme Court to Hear Important Dispensary Cases
Cannabis Spray Being Tested To Ease Cannabis Withdrawal
As Legalization Question Headed for the Ballot, Poll Shows Voters Split
Colorado Revenue Department asks for Marijuana Rescheduling
Study Shows Middle Aged Men’s Cognition Not Harmed by Marijuana Use
Supreme Court May Hear Dog Sniffing Case
Washington State Puts The Legalization Question to the Voters
Pro Surfers To Be Drug Tested This Year
Man’s Car Destroyed By Police During Futile Search for Marijuana
Mendocino National Forest Clean-Up Crews Looking for Volunteers This Weekend
California Chapter of Addiction Medicine Has Different Opinion on Legalization
Arizona Officials Bust Major Mexican Cartel Ring
Americans for Safe Access Sues the US Attorney General
The White House Issues a Response to the Cannabis Community
Canadian Coalition Calls for Legalization
Colorado Issues the Nation’s first Medical Marijuana Business License
Colombian President Calls for the Global Legalization of Marijuana
Mexican Drug War Being Waged in Urban Areas
Fontana Police Send Their Own Threatening Letters to Dispensaries
Pennsylvania Couple Facing Paraphernalia Charges
The Czech Republic Takes a Shot at Legalizing Medical Marijuana
Medical Marijuana Card Holder Sues the US for 2nd Amendment Violations
Oklahoma Governor Just Says No Way
Small Southern Oregon Town is Tops for Growers
Florida Mayor Fires the Entire Police Department over Marijuana Accusations
Rockies Stadium Death Blamed on Alcohol and Marijuana
Federal Judge: Florida Drug Statue Unconstitutional
Eddy Lepp Loses Appeal, Will Spend 10 Years in Prison
CAMP May Be Losing Funding, Another Record Breaking Year
Oregon Woman Gun Case Appealed to Supreme Court
Washington DC Makes a Move to Implement Medical Marijuana Program
Michigan Clinic Is Accused of Buying Votes
The NAACP Calls Out the Drug War for Its Racial Disparities
Middle School Child Gets $1 Million Settlement For Sting Operation
Montana’s Rocky Ride
New Jersey Governor Decides to Allow the Medical Marijuana Program
Australia Moves Toward Harsher Punishments for Marijuana Crimes
Former Neo-Nazi Singing Group Grows up and Embraces Medical Cannabis
Americans for Safe Access File Complaint Against Anti-Marijuana Group
Arizona Opens Cannabis Clubs Despite Dispensary Hold Up
[...] and thousands of pounds of marijuana that they could have gone after, why go after a medical lab? Maybe this is the reason. Posted in Cannabis and the Law, Medical Marijuana | Tagged Betty Aldworth, Bob Winnicki, [...]
It’s not clear in this article, but Marinol is a SYNTHETIC version of THC. They can’t patent a plant, so they want cannabis kept illegal, making you have to pay $723 for 30 doses! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol Scroll down to the section on “Dronabinol”
Good point. Marinol is indeed an artificially-synthesized version of THC, and has different effects. But what about patenting plants? I think the law says that if they “create” it in a lab, they can patent it nowadays. Farmers are losing their businesses and their livelihoods, getting sued out of existence by big agribusiness because their crops were pollinated by wind-blown genetically-engineered, patented pollen. You can see it on TV.