This just in from the official blog of the next potential Surgeon General, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta:
This week the Drug Enforcement Administration overruled one of its own administrative judges, nixing a plan that would break the government’s monopoly on legally growing marijuana for research purposes.
The rejected application came from Lyle Craker, a plant researcher at the University of Massachusetts. He wants to produce strains of pot that could be used in medical research. The jury is still out on this one. Some studies show that marijuana helps ease pain in patients with muscular dystrophy or the eye disease glaucoma; others find that pot restores the appetite of AIDS and cancer patients who are otherwise too nauseated to eat. But some doctors aren’t swayed. Still others say it would be better to distill one or more of the chemicals in marijuana, to produce a more traditional medicine.
As things stand, all marijuana used for research is grown by ElSohly Laboratories, a government-sponsored private company in Oxford, Mississippi. That gives the federal government veto power over any new study. The arrangement also discourages private companies from taking part. Rick Doblin, head of a group called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which sponsored Craker’s application, told me, “No pharmaceutical company would spend ten million dollars or more to obtain approval for a medicine and then have to purchase it from a monopolistic competitor.”
Doblin says the DEA decision is a parting shot by the Bush administration, a backhanded way to block further research. Unanswered is whether Barack Obama will take a different approach. During the campaign, he said he would stop federal raids on people using marijuana with a doctor’s prescription, but lately he’s shown a more cautious side. In December, in response to a popular question on his website, the incoming administration posted, simply, “President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.”
That should be “…in response to THE MOST popular question on his website…”
I asked a spokesman in the Transition Press Office if Obama would support research like Craker’s. He couldn’t say.
Should the government allow more research on medical marijuana? Tell us.
Please do. Tell him. Just click here.
They pulled my comment as I indicated that the question was ill asked and that Dr. Gupta would not make a good “change administration” SG if he asked such inane questions (oh yeah, and that Time Warner was a truth suppressing corporation due to it’s sponsors and control the Doctor’s thinking and responses).
Do what’s right Doc and do your homework on the subject. You obviously are just starting to hear the truth.
Great post Russ.
well it seems they finally allowed most if not all of the comments :)
I certainly hope Dr. Gupta reads those comments and starts doing some of his own research into this subject.
What a crock or quack Gupta is, damn Nazi CNN mods haven’t posted jack or sh*t.
Looks like there are now 66 comments awaiting moderation. My guess is that the comments are only moderated during business hours, and won’t be posted until sometime tomorrow. We shall see. Below is the comment I sent to CNN:
In her 2007 ruling, Drug Enforcement Administration law judge Mary Ellen Bittner determined that the private manufacturing of cannabis by the University of Massachusetts is “in the public interest” because there is “currently an inadequate supply of marijuana available for research purposes.”
How ironic. While pot is only a phone call away for America’s teenagers, it remains out of reach for those qualified researchers who wish to study its therapeutic utility in clinical trials.
Meanwhile, investigators in Europe — where the private production of medical-grade cannabis is less restricted — are developing various cannabis-based drugs to treat debilitating conditions like multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. One such drug — a cannabis plant-based extract known as Sativex — is already legal by prescription in Canada, Spain and in the United Kingdom.
The DEA’s rejection of Judge Bittner’s decision clearly puts politics and ideology before science. President Obama has pledged to end this practice. He can start here.
Paul Armentano
Deputy Director
NORML | NORML Foundation
Washington, DC
My *two* comments didn’t show up on his site.
Right now there’s still only one comment there. That’s weird!??
something tells me my comment isnt going to be allowed….
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Yes the gov’t should allow testing. If nothing else so they can “officially” see what millions already know. That cannabis is an effective, SAFE alternative for many conditions and illnesses. I have severe fibromyalgia, severe-recurring depression and high-level anxiety. I have been taking oromorph twice a day for about 4 years and immediate release morphine for breakthrough pain. Valium and tramadol for anxiety and muscle relaxer. I finally decided I had to take my health into my own hands when my teeth started falling out. Thanks to cannabis I’ve been able to cut the morphine dose in half and am completely off the buproprion for depression. I feel better than I have in years and I can finally sleep through the night. Even a seemingly simple thing like being regular makes a big differance. I even started taking karate classes with my 8 year old daughter. BTW I’m 52 and was diagnosed with fibro in 1992 after two years of exclusionary testing. Nothing the doctors could give me or do for me worked for me as well as 1 gram of vaporized cannabis. Please do whatever is necessary to legally bring this medicine to those who need it. Really the only problem I have with cannabis is that I stand the chance of losing everything to prohibition.
Thank You
It seems a good sign Dr. Gupta presented the incident the way he did.
Check out the preceding “Reefer Madness” post, recent in fact, in the same “Marijuana” section as the Dr.’s.
Peace from TX!
why is my comment and yours still awaiting moderation ?
January 18th, 2009 4:57 pm ET
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
I am glad that you are asking this question. I think that this question is a no brainer for most but to answer your question I must pose a question to you and everyone else.
Do you think we should arrest sick and/or dying people who arent hurting anyone for using a substance that has not and cannot kill anyone?
or better yet…
If 11 or more asprin can kill you but it would take ingesting over 1 TON of Cannabis (obviously humanly impossible) then why shouldnt we at least allow for medical use of cannabis if or even recreational use for those who are 21 and older?
Both cigarette and alcohol use can also kill and both substances are available over the counter to adults but yet again cannabis use cannot kill however it is illegal.
It has been proven in many studies overseas to have great medical use in many fields. It would be a shame to not see the new administration ignore the facts after making such claims about using science to guide or government.
anuary 18th, 2009 7:28 am ET
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Dr. Gupta,
As a Multiple Sclerosis patient diagnosed in 2004, I can only praise the benefits of using marijuana over everything my Doctor wanted to prescribe me.
No self-injected steroids, why should I have to hurt myself to feel better ? and no side effects. No Opiate pain killers, No anti-depressants. All at a fraction of the cost.
My creator had vision in the things he saw. I have faith in God’s medicine, not the modern PHARMINSANITY the Federal Government wants for me.
Rev. Ray Green
Iowans 4 Medical Marijuana