SMOKE SCREEN

If good research leads to societal benefits, government should not
believe it has cornered the market on wisdom and thwart it from taking
place.

Unfortunately, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration won't allow
a University of Massachusetts professor to grow marijuana for medical
research, saying only the government can produce and distribute the
drug for such purposes.

The DEA said Professor Lyle Craker, a horticulturist at UMass Amherst,
didn't prove that the government's involvement has led to "inadequate"
research.

A lab at the University of Mississippi currently is the government's
only marijuana-growing facility, The Associated Press reports.

The professor believes the government-grown marijuana there is not
strong enough for researchers to make medical breakthroughs and that
there isn't enough of the drug available for the nation's scientists.

Although the DEA would not comment on its decision, the professor says
a key objection is the belief that the marijuana would find its way to
UMass students, not scientists. Craker said appropriate security would
prevent that from occurring.

"All we are asking is that let's give it a fair trial, independent
fair trial. I'm not for the recreational use of this," Craker told
AP.

Both U.S. senators from Massachusetts are among those in Congress who
support Craker.

"With one foot out the door, the Bush administration has once again
found time to undermine scientific freedom," Allen Hopper, litigation
director of the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Law Reform
Project, told AP.

There is an expectation that the Obama administration will take a more
enlightened view of this kind of research.

We urge a full review.