The DEA Says No to Pot Privatization

Last week the DEA officially rejected a three-and-a-half-year-old application by University of Massachusetts plant scientist Lyle Craker for a license to manufacture marijuana. Craker's application was part of an attempt by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies to establish a private, alternative source of marijuana for medical research. Currently the only legal source is the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is stingy with its stash, does not supply the potency preferred for medical studies, and probably could not provide the raw material for commercial development of a cannabis-based medicine.

"In the Supreme Court two weeks ago," notes the Marijuana Policy Project's Rob Kampia, "Justice Breyer told two California patients that they should go to the FDA to get marijuana approved as a medicine, but now the DEA has slammed the door on that process. The DEA has proven that the system is rigged to make sure that marijuana will never be approved by the FDA, because the DEA can always block the research that the FDA needs."

Comments

[thoreau]

Currently the only legal source is the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is stingy with its stash, does not supply the potency preferred for medical studies, and probably could not provide the raw material for commercial development of a cannabis-based medicine.

Oh, they could provide the good stuff if they wanted to. But why let somebody else have the good stuff if you've got it all to yourself right now?

[joe]

How are they supposed to use the "there isn't any research" excuse, if people are able to do research?

Tens of millions of people voted in favor of med pot initiatives in the past decade - here's hoping this will piss them off.

[Warren]

Twenty years ago I thought the vilification of pot had exceeded all credibility. So much so, that I considered it intuitively obvious to the most casual observer. Boy howdy, was I wrong. But surely, we must be getting close to the day, that the whole playing card fortress simply blows away on the breeze of reason. Mustn't we!? I for one am doing as much huffing and puffing (pun intended) as I can.

[Ruthless]

And you were thinking the Catch-22 is in the thread above?

[trainwreck]

Fuck the feds. Focus on state ballot initiatives to allow state funded research like California did with stem cell research. It makes sense that a state that will allow medical use should allow medical research.

Put the feds in the position of busting the Dean of the Science Dept. and the Legislature.

[Adam]

The DEA's adding highly combustible fuel to this fire.

Anyone on the MPP email list knows that Kampia is a huge and vital "fan" for those flames, and I for one am glad to help fan those flames whenever I can.

[Adam]

[And yes, they will burn their faces off and their idiotic agency to the ground eventually.]

[Mo]

trainwreck,
They won't arrest them, just cut federal funding. Remember how your parents told you to never lie because to keep it up, you'll have to tell bigger lie to keep it up? This is just that rule in practice on a larger scale.

[Lowdog]

The DEA is the most abusive gov't agency...why can't we get it dissolved?

[trainwreck]

Mo right.

Really, when I think about it, I'm not sure why I believe anything, said by any agent of the federal government.

Except the IRS man. I believe him come April 15.

[Dude]

Warren't comments made me say this. I agree the anti-pot arguments lack all crediblity. I guess we'll just have to end the arguing and start the face-punching now. Honestly. When does argument stop and action begin?

[outSide@@N]

Dude!!!

Theats what i've been waiting to here some course of action(s) / activity.

Nuff talk / debate on this subject.

[Mr. Macky]

"The DEA is the most abusive gov't agency...why can't we get it dissolved?"

Because drugs are bad.

Um-kay.

[Dr. Hydroman]

Outside@@N
Dude, drink a little beer between tokes and quit bogarting.

[JSM]

Twenty years ago I thought the vilification of pot had exceeded all credibility. So much so, that I considered it intuitively obvious to the most casual observer. Boy howdy, was I wrong.

No Warren, you were right. Consider now that 11 or 12 states have med pot laws, Alaska and Nevada were actually close to full decriminalization of possession, the hand full of counties and cities that did decrim pot possession, Seattle's low enforcement priority, Oakland's legalizing and taxing pot, and the gallup poll that shows 80% of Americans favor giving pot to the sick, we've come a long way, Baby! Yes, the snowball has gotten epic in proportions and the feds are desperately grabbing at anything to prevent the inevitable. And as the day gets closer to complete pot freedom, so does the war tribunals for those that stand in the way of the people's will and continue to spread anti-pot propaganda. There should be a price to pay when you obstruct legitimate pot research in favor of breaking up families with arrest, jail time and asset siezure.

[joe]

JSM, I wish that were so. Maybe it is. But this strikes me as one of those issues that goes nowhere for years, and then from absurd fringe movement to conventional wisdom in a split second.

I don't think we'll see the change coming. We just have to keep knocking our heads against the wall, until one day, without warning, it collapses.

[andy]

"The DEA has proven that the system is rigged to make sure that marijuana will never be approved by the FDA, because the DEA can always block the research that the FDA needs."

Why don't they make it so the DEA isn't able to perpetuate its existence? It's obvious that if you give them the power to veto pot research and allow them to espouse their complete bullshit "drugs are evil" propanganda, they're going to continue to do so. This keeps them in business indefinately. We need an agency that makes sure that the DEA doesn't overstep its bounds (although, if you ask me, we shouldn't have a DEA at all, but that's just wishful thinking 🙂

[JSM]

I don't think we'll see the change coming. We just have to keep knocking our heads against the wall, until one day, without warning, it collapses.

joe
Change has come and change continues. However, I don't remain naive to the fact that the changes for the positive could be erased in a blink of an eye or the flash of another terrorist bomb. But the fact is there has been positive movement forward and attitudes have changed nationally for the better. Moreso, results from these changes or raising eyebrows. We certainly have to keep knocking are heads against the wall!