PRESIDENT OBAMA: FREE THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCHERS!

The War on Drugs continues, four decades after President Richard
Nixon commenced hostilities. President Barack Obama--the third
president in a row to have used illicit substances in his youth--is
no drug warrior. However, he seems unlikely to challenge the
disastrous new prohibition.

The president has, however, ended the federal campaign against
medical marijuana, ordering administration officials to respect state
laws legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes. This policy will
grow increasingly important as more states allow use of med-pot (for
instance, in November Maine voters legalized medical marijuana
dispensaries). Congress should approve legislation introduced by Rep.
Barney Frank (D-Mass.), codifying administration policy into law.

Moreover, the president should order the Drug Enforcement Agency to
make more pot available for research, moving the issue forward at
another level.

Critics of medical marijuana argue that pot has no clinical value.
Many doctors, nurses, and scientists disagree.

For instance, the Institute of Medicine (part of the National Academy
of Sciences) concluded that "Cannabinoids likely have a natural role
in pain modulation, control of movement, and memory." Two years ago
San Francisco General Hospital reported that HIV-positive patients
achieved marked pain relief by smoking marijuana. Numerous seriously
ill patients, including such leading political conservatives as the
late Lyn Nofziger, an aide to Ronald Reagan, also attested to the
therapeutic value of pot.

Continued research is needed to resolve the dispute. Indeed, the
Institute of Medicine recommended more study "into the physiological
effects of synthetic and plant-derived cannabinoids and the natural
function of cannabinoids found in the body." Moreover, the IOM
pointed to the importance of reviewing "vaporization devices," since
"Marijuana delivered in a novel way that avoids smoking would
overcome some, but not all, of the regulatory concerns."

Barbara Roberts, formerly of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, suggested that the IOM study provided a blueprint "to
investigate this and to put it to rest." Unfortunately, the Bush
administration, whose drug czar, John Walters, compared marijuana
users to terrorists, refused to follow the IOM's recommendations.

Scientific study is hampered by the Drug Enforcement Agency's control
of marijuana production through the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(part of the National Institutes of Health). NIDA has denied
scientists access to marijuana to study the drug's impact on
migraines and AIDS wasting syndrome, for instance.

The lack of sufficient legal marijuana poses a particular barrier to
privately-funded pharmaceutical research. Without adequate evaluation
of the safety and effectiveness of marijuana's chemical compounds in
treating chemotherapy-induced nausea, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis,
AIDS symptoms, and other diseases, medicine will be impossible to develop.

The Bush administration wanted to have it both ways. It publicly
claimed that marijuana had no medical value while privately denying
researchers the drugs necessary to research pot's medicinal possibilities.

Several years ago Professor Lyle Craker, Director of the Medicinal
Plant Program at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), requested
a Schedule I license to produce marijuana for research purposes. The
University of Mississippi had a monopoly cultivation contract and
opposed Dr. Craker's petition; the DEA did nothing. So Dr. Craker
filed suit, resulting in a nine-day hearing before agency
Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner. She issued an 87-page
opinion in 2007 recommending approval of Craker's application.

Bittner concluded "that NIDA's system for evaluating requests for
marijuana for research has resulted in some researchers who hold DEA
registrations and requisite approval from the Department of Health
and Human Servives being unable to conduct their research because
NIDA has refused to provide them with marijuana. I therefore find
that the existing supply of marijuana is not adequate."

The government complained that Craker "has not shown that his
registration would result in a pharmaceutical company developing a
drug product from plant marijuana," observed Bittner. But only
additional research can determine marijuana's potential as a prescription drug.

Ruled Bittner: "Respondent [Craker] is not obligated to show that his
registration will lead to a pharmaceutical product but, rather, that
he will use his registration to produce marijuana that will be used
in legitimate research. That, Respondent has done." She therefore
recommended approval of Craker's application as being "in the public interest."

The agency filed several disengenous objections to Bittner's
decision, which then went to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy. Tandy was
not asked to legalize marijuana. She was not asked to approve
marijuana for medical purposes. She was not even asked to confirm the
potential medical benefits of the drug.

All she was asked was to do was increase research opportunities for
marijuana research. Doing so would have allowed med-pot advocates to
meet the challenge raised by her predecessor, Robert Bonner: "Those
who insist that marijuana has medical uses would serve society better
by promoting or sponsoring more legitimate scientific research,
rather than throwing their time, money and rhetoric into lobbying,
public relations campaigns and perennial litigation."

Tandy and the DEA ignored Craker's appeal until January 7, 2009, when
the Bush administration's drug warriors were two weeks away from
being pushed out the door. Deputy Administrator Michele Leonhart then
rejected Bittner's recommendation, ruling "that the proposed
registration is inconsistent with the public interest." Leonhart
offered conclusions rather than justifications, suggesting that the
last administration simply opposed allowing additional research which
might result in politically incorrect conclusions.

President Obama campaigned to restore good science to policy making.
The issue of medical marijuana requires just such an approach. All
parties should be able to agree on the value of more "legitimate
scientific research," in Bonner's words.

But the DEA continues to stand in the way. Mr. President, it's time
for a change.