OLE MISS MAY GET COMPETITION IN GROWING LEGAL MARIJUANA

OXFORD - A judicial opinion may end the University of Mississippi's
monopoly on growing marijuana for researchers in the United States.

A field at the Oxford campus is the United States' only legal source
of cannabis. Since 1968, the university has had contracts with the
National Institute for Drug Abuse - competitively bid and renewed
every three to five years - to grow the plant and distribute it as
NIDA directs to researchers nationwide.

Dr. Lyle Craker, a horticulturist at the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst petitioned the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to
become a second grower of marijuana. He contends DEA's enforcement
mission prejudices the agency against approving research projects
that could show promise.

"Science is based on replication," Craker told the Daily Journal. "I
always worry when the agency that is charged with keeping people from
using a substance is the one that controls all the research on it."

Craker said some researchers have also expressed needs for varieties
of marijuana not grown at Ole Miss - a more potent variety often
found in The Netherlands, for example.

Preliminary ruling Administrative Judge Mary Ellen Bittner of the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued an opinion last week that
Craker should be allowed to grow the experimental drug.

The ruling is only an initial step toward a possible second grower.
Higher DEA officials could overrule Bittner's opinion. The agency's
stated position is that "marijuana has no medical value that can't be
met more effectively by legal drugs." Some researchers, however, say
the drug and its derivatives show promise, especially to relieve pain
and nausea in patients with cancer or AIDS.

If Craker's petition is ultimately successful, his project will be
funded by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS), which for two decades has promoted medical research of
marijuana, MDMA ("ecstasy") and psychedelic drugs.

While MAPS officially emphasizes academic efforts, some critics
contend its leaders promote generalized drug legalization. The
group's president, Rick Doblin, has served on the board of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which
advocates removal of all penalties for personal marijuana use.

Research professor Mahmoud ElSohly oversees the marijuana project as
part of the National Center for Natural Products Research at Ole Miss
and is a prominent marijuana researcher in his own right. Among his
accomplishments in the field is a patent for a marijuana rectal
suppository that eliminates the risks of smoking. The technology also
lessens the psychological effects common to smoking marijuana and
reduces the risk of abusing the drug.

ElSohly could not be reached Friday for comment on Bittner's ruling.