Marijuana research in the United States is dominated by a lone, big-muscled monopolist: the federal government. A recent report by Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens working to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research -- explains why that's bad for both science and sick Americans, says Brian Doherty, of Reason Magazine.
Currently only the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) can legally supply researchers with marijuana. NIDA, which guards its gatekeeper status jealously, is oriented toward the idea that pot is harmful, not useful. Even when researchers have received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for their studies, NIDA frequently refuses to sell them the pot they need to carry out their research, essentially exercising a veto on the FDA's decisions.
Moreover:
* The FDA has to follow statutory time limits in considering applications, but NIDA can stretch out the process endlessly.
* This, the ASA report notes, makes it "financially prohibitive for sponsors to invest the millions of dollars needed to conduct research."
* With NIDA bogarting America's only federally sanctioned weed, the number of privately funded medical cannabis studies currently taking place in America right now is exactly zero.
* Of the 14 studies investigating marijuana in anyway, 13 are NIDA projects looking into drug abuse.
In 2007, an administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recommended ending the monopoly, suggesting that the DEA grant licenses to private producers of research cannabis. Although 45 members of Congress have written to the DEA in support of this idea, nothing has changed, says Doherty.
The agency justifies the monopoly on the grounds that "diversion" of the marijuana for non-scientific uses would be more likely if multiple sources provided pot for science.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: National Center for Policy Analysis
Author: Brian Doherty
Contact: National Center for Policy Analysis
Copyright: 2009 National Center for Policy Analysis
Website: Weed Control
Currently only the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) can legally supply researchers with marijuana. NIDA, which guards its gatekeeper status jealously, is oriented toward the idea that pot is harmful, not useful. Even when researchers have received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for their studies, NIDA frequently refuses to sell them the pot they need to carry out their research, essentially exercising a veto on the FDA's decisions.
Moreover:
* The FDA has to follow statutory time limits in considering applications, but NIDA can stretch out the process endlessly.
* This, the ASA report notes, makes it "financially prohibitive for sponsors to invest the millions of dollars needed to conduct research."
* With NIDA bogarting America's only federally sanctioned weed, the number of privately funded medical cannabis studies currently taking place in America right now is exactly zero.
* Of the 14 studies investigating marijuana in anyway, 13 are NIDA projects looking into drug abuse.
In 2007, an administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recommended ending the monopoly, suggesting that the DEA grant licenses to private producers of research cannabis. Although 45 members of Congress have written to the DEA in support of this idea, nothing has changed, says Doherty.
The agency justifies the monopoly on the grounds that "diversion" of the marijuana for non-scientific uses would be more likely if multiple sources provided pot for science.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: National Center for Policy Analysis
Author: Brian Doherty
Contact: National Center for Policy Analysis
Copyright: 2009 National Center for Policy Analysis
Website: Weed Control
