DEA REJECTS PROFESSOR'S BID TO GROW MARIJUANA

A University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor hoping to grow
marijuana for research purposes got a preliminary denial from the US
Drug Enforcement Administration last week.

Lyle Craker, a horticulturist who specializes in medicinal plants, had
won support from both Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry in
his quest to grow marijuana legally. Only one American lab, at the
University of Mississippi, currently has the legal right to grow
marijuana for research, and Craker argued that the Mississippi
marijuana is not strong enough and not readily available to
researchers.

He first applied to the DEA for permission to grow marijuana more than
three years ago. Kennedy and Kerry wrote a letter to the DEA last year
saying that the Mississippi lab had an "unjustified monopoly."
Craker and a group that wants to fund his work, the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies, sued the government last summer.
One of their arguments was that the DEA's failure to act on the
application was an "unreasonable delay."

The US Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., asked the government to
explain its delay, and instead DEA issued a decision last week. In the
decision, DEA said that the University of Mississippi provides
researchers "marijuana of sufficient quantity and quality to meet all
their legitimate and authorized research needs in a timely manner."

It also argues that an international treaty says the government can
allow only one source for research marijuana.

Craker and MAPS can still appeal to a federal administrative judge who
makes recommendations to the DEA, but the judge's opinion is not
binding, said MAPS president Rick Doblin. If unsuccessful, they plan
to continue their fight in the courts.

Doblin said the DEA sat on Craker's application for so long because
officials lacked valid arguments to stop Craker's work.

Craker's hope is to grow a potent strain of marijuana, under heavy
security, and then make the plant available to scientists.

"The sky is not going to come crashing down if they approve this,"
Craker said. "What they would get is some good science, and they need
that."