Today there was some good news in the fight to get the DEA to lift a 40-year ban on allowing the FDA to conduct research on marijuana for medical purposes.
But don’t get too excited, because whether or not this goes forward now is up to just ONE person…
Judge Submits Official Recommendation to DEA Urging End to 40-Year Barrier to FDA-Approved Medical Marijuana Research
WASHINGTON D.C. – A U.S. Department of Justice-appointed judge submitted her final recommendation to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on May 15, calling on the agency to end a forty-year government monopoly on the supply of research-grade marijuana available for Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved studies. With this monopoly broken, new studies could lead to medical marijuana’s availability in pharmacies as a legal, prescription drug. DEA Deputy Administrator Michele Leonhart must now accept the judge’s recommendation in order for the ruling to take effect, though she has no deadline for doing so and may choose to reject the recommendation.
You can read the full article here.
It’s absolutely insane. Every other drug you can name, e.g. heroin, ecstasy, LSD, etc. etc. etc. is approved by the DEA for research purposes. But the LEAST harmful drug of them all (including alcohol), marijuana, is considered too evil and dangerous to even be allowed to be studied.
If that isn’t ‘politics’, my friend, then I don’t know what in the hell is. I’d love to know how Michele voted in the last presidential election…
Wed, May 23, 2007
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