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Good Luck to them and there long running battle. Link for full story
Quote:
An administrative law judge recommended Monday that a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst be allowed to grow marijuana for research purposes, possibly making the state host to the nationâ??s second laboratory authorized to grow the drug.
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Monday, February 12, 2007
Judge: Let prof grow medicinal marijuana
By David Abel, GLOBE STAFF
An administrative law judge recommended Monday that a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst be allowed to grow marijuana for research purposes, possibly making the state host to the nationâ??s second laboratory authorized to grow the drug.
Professor Lyle Craker, a horticulturist who specializes in medicinal plants, has won support from both Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry in his effort to grow marijuana for research.
Marijuana is now only legally grown at the University of Mississippi, but Craker has argued that the drug grown there is neither potent enough nor readily available to researchers.
In her opinion, which can be overruled by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Judge Mary Ellen Bittner said Crakerâ??s bid to grow marijuana "would be in the public interest."
"There would be minimal risk of diversion of marijuana," she wrote. "There is currently an inadequate supply of marijuana available for research purposes ... [and] competition in the provision of marijuana for such purposes is inadequate."
In a phone interview, Craker said he had not read the 87-page opinion. "I understand itâ??s favorable, and thatâ??s good," he said.
Rick Doblin -- president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a drug research group based in Belmont that hopes to sponsor Crakerâ??s work -- called the decision "a major turning point."
"This is a major step to getting us to do the scientific research that the government has been blocking for the past 30 years," Doblin said. "If the government says no, the hypocrisy of their approach will help fuel efforts for state medical marijuana reforms."
Garrison Courtney, a DEA spokesman, declined to comment on the ruling. "Weâ??re still reviewing the opinion," he said. "Weâ??ll make a determination at a later point."
Craker first applied to the DEA for permission to grow marijuana in 2001. Kennedy and Kerry later wrote a letter to the DEA, saying that the Mississippi lab had an "unjustified monopoly."
In 2004, Craker and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies sued the government in federal court, charging the DEA with unreasonable delays.
The DEA promptly rejected their bid. In 2005, Craker and the group sought the opinion from an administrative law judge.
If the DEAâ??s administrator decides to reject Bittnerâ??s recommendation, Doblin said Craker and the group would file another lawsuit in federal court.
wOOt UMass Amherst is my alma mater!!!!
They have a wonderful ag program and always have.
After reading this, this isnt a Ruling, but a Non Binding Judicial Opinion...so...no victory for the College, if they do try to grow marijuana...they will get their ass arrested.
No victory yet, but they got someone in the DEA to side with them. And if they have to sue again they now have a statement from a DEA judge as evidence to use.
That's about an hour from my house.
I'll have to check this out in person one day. LOL
opinions aren't admissable in court unless its from the Attorney General of the United States.....Judges Interpret the law, they do not make the law
I'm sure they will retain the permission that they desire for growing this...and I bet sooooo sooo sooo much more will be discovered about marijuana once tests can be done on flowers that the NIDA doesn't personally supply.
1 word.... AMAZING!!!