UMASS PROFESSOR GETS BOOST IN BID TO GROW MARIJUANA FOR RESEARCH

WASHINGTON - Concluding that there is an inadequate supply of
marijuana for medical research, an administrative law judge has
recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that it grant a
Massachusetts professor's application to grow the drug in bulk.

The judge's ruling is nonbinding. But officials at the American Civil
Liberties Union hope that the recommendation to grant the application
of Professor Lyle Craker will eventually lead to more research into
the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

In June 2001, Craker submitted an application as a marijuana
manufacturer to the DEA. However, the federal government limits the
growing of marijuana available for clinical research to one source,
the University of Mississippi.

Federal officials said that Craker's university, the University of
Massachusetts Amherst, is free to compete for the next contract to
produce research-grade marijuana for the United States. But there was
no basis to add another producer.

The company that wants to fund Craker's facility for growing
marijuana countered that researchers are not getting the quantity or
the quality of marijuana needed to conduct research that is approved
by the Food and Drug Administration.

The DEA contacted researchers and determined otherwise, so hearings
were held in August and December of 2006 as Craker pursued the case.
He got help from the ACLU along the way.

The administrative law judge, Mary Ellen Bittner, concluded Monday
that granting Craker's application would be in the public interest.
Among the reasons she cited were inadequate competition and an
inadequate supply of marijuana for research purposes.

Steve Robertson, a spokesman for DEA, said Monday night the agency is
reviewing Bittner's decision and would have no immediate comment. The
DEA administrator, Karen Tandy, retains final authority to decide on
the application.

"I hope that Administrator Tandy abides by the decision and grants me
the opportunity to do my job unimpeded by drug war politics," Craker
said in a statement distributed by the ACLU.