PROF GETS A BOOST IN BID TO GROW POT

Judge's Ruling Could Benefit Patients If U.S. Agrees to Legal Crop
for Medical Research.

Medical researchers need more marijuana sources, because government
supplies aren't meeting scientific demand, a federal judge has ruled.

In an emphatic but nonbinding opinion, the Drug Enforcement
Administration's own judge is recommending that a University of
Massachusetts professor be allowed to grow a legal pot crop. The real
winners could be those suffering from painful and wasting diseases,
proponents believe.

"The existing supply of marijuana is not adequate," Administrative
Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled.

Researchers contend that the federal government's 12-acre marijuana
plot at the University of Mississippi provides neither the quantity
nor quality that scientists need. Bittner didn't embrace those
criticisms but agreed the system for producing and distributing
research pot is flawed.

"Competition in the manufacture of marijuana for research purposes is
inadequate," she determined.

The judge further concluded that there is "minimal risk of diversion"
from a new marijuana source. Making additional supplies available,
she said, "would be in the public interest."

The DEA isn't required to follow Bittner's 88-page opinion, and the
Bush administration's anti-drug stance makes it unlikely that the
grass-growing rules will loosen. Both sides now can file further
information before DEA administrators make their ruling.

"We could still be months away from a final decision," DEA spokesman
Garrison Courtney said Tuesday, adding, "We're going to take the
judge's opinion into consideration."

Still, the ruling is resonating in labs and with civil libertarians.

"(The) ruling is an important step toward allowing medical marijuana
patients to get their medicine from a pharmacy just like everyone
else," said Allen Hopper, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Based in Santa Cruz, the ACLU's Drug Law Reform Project has been
representing University of Massachusetts scientist Lyle Craker. Since
2001, Craker has confronted numerous bureaucratic and legal obstacles
in his request for permission to grow research-grade marijuana.

An agronomist, Craker was asked by a five-member group called the
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies to grow bulk
marijuana. The group wants to research such areas as developing
vaporizers that can efficiently deliver pot smoke.

"This ruling is a victory for science, medicine and the public good,"
Craker said.