JUDGE SIDES WITH BOTANIST ON POT SUPPLY

A Massachusetts botanist should be allowed to grow marijuana for
medical study, a hearing officer said Monday in a ruling that would
end a longtime government requirement that all federally approved
researchers get their pot supplies from the University of Mississippi.

Because of the monopoly arrangement, in effect since 1968, "there is
currently an inadequate supply of marijuana available for research
purposes," said Mary Ellen Bittner, a Drug Enforcement Administration
administrative law judge. She said the application by Lyle Craker, a
University of Massachusetts professor of plant biology, "would be in
the public interest."

The ruling is actually only a recommendation to the DEA, which
supports the current policy. Agency spokesman Garrison Courtney said
a deputy administrator would make the final decision after reviewing
arguments from lawyers for the DEA staff and for Craker. The agency's
decision could be appealed to a federal court in Washington, D.C.

"It's going to be a hard case to win," said Anjuli Verna of the
American Civil Liberties Union's drug law reform project, which
represents Craker. She said the court could overturn a DEA veto of
Bittner's ruling only if it was found that the agency was acting arbitrarily.

Currently, all researchers on marijuana in the United States must
obtain licenses and get their drug supplies from the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, which has had an exclusive contract with the
University of Mississippi for more than 38 years.

The government and the university project overseer say they supply
high-quality marijuana, with varying potencies, to all researchers
with a legitimate need, and currently provide the drug to nearly 500
patients in clinical trials. An exclusive contract is necessary, the
DEA contends, to prevent diversion of the "most heavily abused" of
drugs in the government's list of dangerous substances.

But the ACLU's Verna said many researchers have complained that the
Mississippi marijuana is "very low-grade, low-potency," requiring
increased usage -- with potential health problems -- to get the desired effect.

"Research is simply stymied," Verna said. She said
government-approved researchers in other drugs, such as LSD and
cocaine, can get their supplies from a number of laboratories.

Bittner said in her ruling that the quality of the
government-supplied marijuana was "generally adequate," despite some
problems. But she said some researchers with approved projects have
been unable to obtain marijuana because of the federal policy. She
also found little risk that marijuana grown by Craker would be
diverted to illegal uses.

Craker's application, first filed in 2001, was sponsored by an
organization called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies, which proposed to fund his indoor cultivation and provide
the marijuana to federally approved researchers. Both of
Massachusetts' senators, Democrats Edward Kennedy and John Kerry,
have written to the DEA in support of Craker.

The agency turned Craker down in 2003, saying there was no need for
additional research supplies.