BREAK THE RESEARCH-POT MONOPOLY

Re: "Why Legalization Failed,' Legalization Nation, 11/10

Proposition 19's failure at the polls demonstrates that although
Californians have accepted the medicinal use of marijuana, they are
not ready to accept recreational use. This makes it that much more
important to facilitate research into the benefits and harms of
marijuana in order to properly assess the utility of cannabis. At
present, researchers have to contend with a monopoly over the
marijuana supply held by the National Institute on Drug Abuse whose
mission is to study the harmful effects of illicit drugs. This
disqualifies them as objective judges as to who to provide marijuana
to for FDA approved studies.

To clarify the efficacy of our existing medical marijuana law,
Californians need to strengthen their understanding of how to
effectively utilize marijuana medicinally. We can facilitate research
through breaking NIDA's monopoly over the marijuana supply for FDA
studies by putting pressure on the DEA to issue a license to
cultivate marijuana to Dr. Lyle Craker at UMASS Amherst. To give our
representatives the courage to push for expanding marijuana research,
they can look to DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner, who
found that it would be in the public interest to issue Dr. Craker a
license to cultivate cannabis. Acting DEA Administrator Michelle
Leonhart rejected this recommendation shortly after Obama took
office. It's time we ask why she chose to uphold an obstructive
federal monopoly in order to bring this issue from the political to
the scientific sphere.

Stephen Morseman, San Leandro