U.S. PUTS BRAKE ON 'POT' STUDIES

AMHERST - Lyle E. Craker's plans to grow marijuana in his University
of Massachusetts laboratory to be used for medicinal studies have been
put on indefinite hold by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Craker filed an application with DEA in June 2001 to establish a
facility on the Amherst campus to produce marijuana for U.S. Food and
Drug Administration-approved research.

Last July, he and two other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit demanding that
the DEA respond to his request. On Friday, he got his answer in a
six-page "order to show cause" from the DEA denying his request.

"What we're attempting to do is to test this plant to see if it
actually has any clinical benefit," said Craker, director of the
medicinal plant program and member of the department of plant, soil,
and insect sciences at UMass, yesterday. "Many people may be suffering
from medical problems who we may be able to help."

He said he plans to seek a hearing at which he will show cause why the
DEA should not deny his application. Under his plan, the
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies would fund the
UMass cultivation. The association and Craker were plaintiffs in the
lawsuit filed in July.

Currently, the National Institute on Drug Abuse
is the only agency allowed to oversee the cultivation of
research-grade marijuana on behalf of the government. But many
scientists have questioned the quality and quantity of the marijuana
produced at the University of Mississippi for the institute. In its
order, the DEA said it found that the laboratory is producing a
"sufficient quantity and quality" of marijuana to meet research needs.

"What this decision does is effectively close the doors on any
foreseeable prospect of the Federal Drug Administration considering
marijuana as medicine," said Bruce E. Mirken, director of
communications for the Marijuana Policy Project based in Washington,
D.C.

The order also says that an additional facility is not needed because
marijuana research has not progressed to Phase 2 of clinical trials
because "current research must utilize smoked marijuana, which
ultimately cannot be the permitted delivery system for any potential
marijuana medication due to the deleterious effects and the difficulty
in monitoring the efficaciousness of smoked marijuana."

Rick E. Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies, said the DEA is performing Phase 2 trials with
marijuana. He said his group wants to study the medicinal benefits of
marijuana in two forms, smoked and by vaporizer.

"We want to develop marijuana into a prescription medicine, or have
research that says it's too risky," Doblin said. "Our broader goal is
to say we have a public health issue that is being addressed as a
criminal justice issue." The DEA would not comment on the order to
show cause, and said Craker has 30 days from receipt of the letter in
which to respond and have a hearing date scheduled.