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RESEARCHERS FIND STUDY OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISCOURAGED Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/health/policy/19marijuana.html

Despite the Obama administration's tacit support of more liberal state medical marijuana laws, the federal government still discourages research into the medicinal uses of smoked marijuana. That may be one reason that -- even though some patients swear by it -- there is no good scientific evidence that legalizing marijuana's use provides any benefits over current therapies. Lyle E. Craker, a professor of plant sciences at the University of Massachusetts, has been trying to get permission from federal authorities for nearly nine years to grow a supply of the plant that he could study and provide to researchers for clinical trials.

But the Drug Enforcement Administration -- more concerned about abuse than potential benefits -- has refused, even after the agency's own administrative law judge ruled in 2007 that Dr. Craker's application should be approved, and even after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in March ended the Bush administration's policy of raiding dispensers of medical marijuana that comply with state laws.

"All I want to be able to do is grow it so that it can be tested," Dr. Craker said in comments echoed by other researchers. Marijuana is the only major drug for which the federal government controls the only legal research supply and for which the government requires a special scientific review.

"The more it becomes clear to people that the federal government is blocking these studies, the more people are willing to defect by using politics instead of science to legalize medicinal uses at the state level," said Rick Doblin, executive director of a nonprofit group dedicated to researching psychedelics for medical uses. On Monday, his last full day in office, Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey signed a measure passed by the Legislature last week that made the state the 14th in the nation to legalize the use of marijuana to help with chronic illnesses.

The measure was pushed by a loose coalition of patients suffering from chronic illnesses like Lou Gehrig's disease and multiple sclerosis who said marijuana eased their symptoms. Studies have shown convincingly that marijuana can relieve nausea and improve appetite among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Studies also prove that marijuana can alleviate the aching and numbness that patients with H.I.V. and AIDS suffer.

There are strong hints that marijuana may ameliorate some of the neurological problems associated with such degenerative diseases as multiple sclerosis, said Dr. Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego. But there is no good evidence that legalizing the smoking of marijuana is needed to provide these effects. The Food and Drug Administration in 1985 approved Marinol, a prescription pill of marijuana's active ingredient, T.H.C. Although a few small-scale studies done decades ago suggest that smoked marijuana may prove effective when Marinol does not, no conclusive research has confirmed this finding.

And Marinol is no panacea. There are at least three medicines that in most patients provide better relief from nausea and vomiting than Marinol, studies show. Buddy Coolen, 31, of Warwick, R.I., said he tried or continued to use some of those medicines. "Smoking for me is as good as any medicine I have," he said.

Eight years ago, Mr. Coolen contracted gastroparesis and cyclic vomiting syndrome. He lost 50 pounds and, despite being 5 foot 11, weighed 120 pounds. His doctors gave him myriad anti-emetics, many of which he still takes. They also prescribed Marinol, but it did not work for him, Mr. Coolen said.

"My stepdad is old school and was really against marijuana, but then he saw what it did for me and totally changed his way of thinking," Mr. Coolen said. Some doctors and law enforcement officials say such anecdotes should not drive public policy. Dr. Eric Braverman, medical director of a multispecialty clinic in Manhattan, said legalizing marijuana was unnecessary and dangerous since Marinol provided the medicinal effects of the plant. "Our society will deteriorate," he said.

Patients who call Dr. Braverman's clinic are, when put on hold, told that the clinic may prescribe supplements and other alternative treatments that have even less scientific justification than marijuana. Dr. Braverman said such alternatives rendered marijuana unnecessary, but his embrace of alternatives is a reminder that medicine has long been driven by more than science. About 20 percent of drug prescriptions are written for uses that are not approved by federal drug regulators; about half of the nation's adults regularly take supplements; herbal and homeopathic remedies are popular.

The nation's growing embrace of medical marijuana has stemmed from these alternative traditions. The University of Mississippi has the nation's only federally approved marijuana plantation. If they wish to investigate marijuana, researchers must apply to the National Institute on Drug Abuse to use the Mississippi marijuana and must get approvals from a special Public Health Service panel, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration. But federal officials have repeatedly failed to act on marijuana research requests in a timely manner or have denied them, according to a 2007 ruling by an administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration. While refusing to approve a second marijuana producer, the government allowed the University of Mississippi to supply Mallinckrodt, a drug maker, with enough marijuana to eventually produce a generic version of Marinol.

"As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use," said Shirley Simson, a spokeswoman for the drug abuse institute, known as NIDA. "We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana." The Drug Enforcement Administration said it was just following NIDA's lead. "D.E.A. has never denied a research registration for marijuana and/or THC if NIDA approved the protocols for that individual entity," a supervisory special agent, Gary Boggs, said by e-mail.

Researchers investigating LSD, Ecstasy and other illegal drugs can use any of a number of suppliers licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Dr. Doblin said. And if a researcher wants to use a variety of marijuana that the University of Mississippi does not grow -- and there are many with differing medicinal properties -- they are out of luck, Dr. Doblin said. Law enforcement tends to emphasize the abuse potential of medicines without regard to their positive effects. Bureaucratic battles between the D.E.A. and the F.D.A. over the availability of narcotics -- highly effective but addictive medicines -- have gone on for decades.

So medical marijuana may never have good science underlying its use. But for patients in desperate need, the ethics of providing access to the drug are clear, said Dr. Richard Payne, a professor of medicine and divinity and director of the Institute for Care on the End of Life at Duke Divinity School.

"It's not a great drug," he said, "but what's the harm?"

Newshawk: Medical Marijuana
Source: United States Times (NY), Page: A14
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Gardiner Harris
Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jan 2010
Webpage: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/health/policy/19marijuana.html
Cited: Lyle E. Craker
Cited: Rick Doblin
Cited: The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research
Referenced: New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act
Bookmark: (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

ABC News/Washington Post Poll: 81 Percent Support Legalizing Marijuana for Medical Use - ANALYSIS By GARY LANGER, Jan. 18, 2010 Source: http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/medical-marijuana-abc-news-poll-analysis/story?id=9586503

Eight in 10 Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use and nearly half favor decriminalizing the drug more generally, both far higher than a decade ago. With New Jersey this week poised to become the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana, 81 percent in this national ABC News/Washington Post poll support the idea, up from an already substantial 69 percent in 1997. Indeed the main complaint is with restrictions on access, as in the New Jersey law. Click > here < for PDF with charts and questionnaire. -

Fifty-six percent say that if it's allowed, doctors should be able to prescribe medical marijuana to anyone they think it can help. New Jersey's measure, which is more restrictive than most, limits prescriptions to people with severe illnesses. State health officials can add to the list.

DECRIMINALIZE? - Apart from medical marijuana, there have been recent efforts to decriminalize marijuana more broadly in some states. A preliminary vote on one such measure is to be held in the Washington state Legislature this week. In California organizers say they've collected enough signatures to hold a statewide referendum on the issue next fall. And a separate proposal in California to legalize and tax the drug cleared a legislative committee last week. A Field poll there in April found 56 percent support for the idea, which its backers say would raise $1.3 billion a year. Nationally, this survey finds 46 percent support for legalizing small amounts of marijuana for personal use the same as it was last spring, and well above its level in past years, for example 39 percent in 2002 and 22 percent in 1997.

GROUPS - Age is a factor. Just 23 percent of senior citizens favor legalizing marijuana for personal use; that jumps to 51 percent of adults under age 65. There are political and ideological differences as well: Thirty percent of conservatives and 32 percent of Republicans favor legalization, compared with 49 percent of independents, 53 percent of Democrats and more than half of moderates and liberals alike (53 and 63 percent, respectively). Medical marijuana, for its part, receives majority support across the political and ideological spectrum, from 68 percent of conservatives and 72 percent of Republicans as well as 85 percent of Democrats and independents and about nine in 10 liberals and moderates. Support slips to 69 percent among seniors, vs. 83 percent among all adults under age 65.

There are similar divisions on whether medical marijuana should be restricted or made available to anyone a doctor thinks it would help. Overall, 56 percent, as noted, prefer no restrictions, while 21 percent say it should be limited to terminally ill patients and an additional 21 percent say it should be limited to those with serious but not necessarily terminal illnesses. Liberals are 23 points more apt than conservatives, and Democrats 20 points more likely than Republicans, to oppose restrictions. There's also a difference between the sexes, with men 10 points more likely than women to say the doctor should decide.

But the main difference is whether people think marijuana should be permitted for medical uses in the first place. Among supporters, 63 percent would rely on the doctor's discretion. Among those who oppose medical marijuana, 75 percent say that if it is allowed, it should be limited to seriously or terminally ill patients. New Jersey passed its medical marijuana law this month and outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to sign it tomorrow morning, his last day in office. Medical marijuana first became legal in California in 1996, followed by Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state.

METHODOLOGY - This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone Jan. 12-15, 2010, among a random national sample of 1,083 adults, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents, with an oversample of African Americans (weighted to their correct share of the population) for a total of 153 black respondents. Results for the full sample have a 3.5-point error margin. Click > here < for a detailed description of sampling error. Sampling, data collection and tabulation by TNS of Horsham, PA. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/medical-marijuana-abc-news-poll-analysis/story?id=9586503

LOOKING FOR RATIONAL APPROACHES THROUGH PROS AND CONS

"When these difficult Cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under Consideration all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time... To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con... And tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of Algebraic Quantities, yet when each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less likely to take a rash Step..."

Benjamin Franklin Letter to Joseph Priestley September 19, 1772

http://www.ProCon.org/

Like Benjamin Franklin, many of us make difficult decisions by penning pros and cons on a divided sheet of paper. Applying this concept to the 21st Century, a non-profit called ProCon.org established a website that over the last 20 years has picked "topics that are complicated and important to many Americans and that fit [ProCon.org's] mission of 'Promoting education, critical thinking, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan primarily pro-con format.'" ProCon.org carries this simple divided list one step further by assigning a ranking system to the citations used to substantiate the pro and con positions. Statistical reports from government sources secure the highest five star rankings, while experts, the media, and organizations/VIPs scale respectively downward from four stars to one star. ProCon.org applies a defined, objective methodology to its ranking system, citations, and selection of topics for analysis.

While several categories touch on public policies toward illegal drugs (ACLU, Death Penalty, Felon Voting, and Alternative Energy), three speak directly to the topic: Sports and Drugs, Prescription Drugs, and Medical Marijuana. . Sports and Drugs: http://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/ - Prescription Drugs: http://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org/ - Medical Marijuana: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/ Sports and Drugs focuses on athletic competition and performance enhancing substances, often hitting reform's radar when the target is marijuana. Displayed in the recently-added Prescription Drugs category are ads for yesterday's therapeutic agents, many of which are now today's illicit substances. Cocaine toothache drops, morphine cough syrup for children, Bayer brand heroin, and Eli Lilly methamphetamine - side by side with ads for currently marketed pharmaceuticals - show that legal versus illegal is more a function of social mores and moral regulation than the drug itself.

The Medical Marijuana category illustrates this well. The "Should marijuana be a medical option" link scrolls through pages and pages of pro and con citations, with the "pros" eventually overcoming the "con" argument to win the debate. The utility of ProCon.org doesn't end with simply balancing the debate; the site contains a wealth of information relating to medicinal cannabis. Check out these links:

Medical Marijuana Historical Timeline. This cited timeline begins in 2737 BC and advances by major cannabis related event into the present. Did you know that Gautama Buddha is said to have survived by eating only cannabis seeds? Or that cannabis root applied to skin eases inflammation? Learn more at: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID

Peer-Reviewed Studies on Marijuana. The sixty-five studies that comprise this list dispel the myth that no scientific research exists concerning herbal cannabis. Labeled "Pro," "Con," or "Not Clearly Pro or Con," the "Pros" are clearly winning. http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID

Deaths from Marijuana v. 17 FDA-Approved Drugs. This interesting table found its roots in ProCon.org's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the number of deaths caused by marijuana compared to the number of deaths caused by 17 FDA-approved drugs, many used in place of marijuana. "Primary suspect of the death" for marijuana = 0. "Primary suspect" for the 17 FDA-approved drugs = 10,008. http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=000145

We live in complex and contentious times, marked by varied and changing issues that often become mired in confusing messages from conflicting messengers. ProCon.org's mission and format help sort through the mountain of supporting and opposing viewpoints. As Benjamin Franklin astutely observed, by evaluating an issue's pros and cons, we can "judge better, and [be] less likely to take a rash step."

Author: Mary Jane Borden Note: Mary Jane Borden is a writer, artist, and activist in drug policy from Westerville, Ohio. She serves as Business Manager/Fundraising Specialist for DrugSense
Newshawk: The Ohio Patient Network
Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jun 2009
Source: DrugSense Weekly (DSW)

DEA NIXES CHALLENGE TO OLE MISS MONOPOLY; and Growing Pot for REAL Research

Guns blazing as they head for the exit, the Bush gang has blasted the hopes of Lyle Craker, a UMass Amherst botany professor who applied in June, 2001 for a DEA license to grow marijuana for FDA-approved medical research. On Jan. 12 Craker got a formal letter of denial from DEA Administrator Michele Leonhartt. Mahmoud ElSohly of the University of Mississippi remains America's only legal grower, as far as the feds are concerned.

Some of the destructive regulations promulgated by Bush in recent months may be reversible, but the DEA's rejection of Craker appears to be final. Lawyers are exploring the appeal options, according to Rick Doblin, who organized legal and political support for Craker. Doblin didn't sound optimistic on the phone Jan. 13.

Prof. Craker has already won an appeal -- but it didn't count, as we shall explain. His application had been rejected by the DEA in December, 2004, following a three-and-a-half year "evaluation process." With pro-bono help from DC lawyers and the ACLU, he appealed. An extensive hearing was conducted by Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner at DEA headquarters in Arlington. Team Craker argued that "the current system does not provide an adequate and uninterrupted supply of marijuana for legitimate purposes," and "creating an alternative to the current NIDA-controlled monopoly would promote the advancement of science and research by adding competition without increasing the risk of diversion."

The DEA called ElSohly, who spent December 13 and 14, 2005, defending his monopoly. His testimony was revealing. Much of his work for the government involves testing the potency of thousands of marijuana samples seized by law enforcement agencies throughout the country. On his own time, presumably, he has patented a THC-extract suppository, which a corporation called Insys is trying to market. (Can they think of a better slogan than "Up yours, America?") El Sohly also has a contract with Mallinckrodt, a giant chemical company that plans to market a THC-extract pill as an alternative to Marinol (which is synthetic THC in prescribable pill form).

ElSohly testified that the marijuana he grows for NIDA meets all the needs of U.S. researchers. His most recent crop, grown in the summer of 2002, averaged about 7% THC. It was stored in drums lined with plastic in refrigerated vaults. Upon getting word from NIDA that a researcher's request had been granted, ElSohly sends a batch to the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina to be machine-rolled into cigarettes.

ElSohly testified that marijuana higher than 8% THC would gum up the rolling machines. Moreover, he said, administrators from the University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research had advised him that patients in clinical trials could not tolerate marijuana with THC content above 8%. That's a dubious claim. In any case, one puff of an 8% THC cigarette provides the same amount as two puffs a of 4%-THC cig. Clinical trial protocols can be adjusted accordingly.

One of the recipients of ElSohly's NIDAwanna is Irvin Rosenfeld, a Ft. Lauderdale stockbroker whose rare bone disorder qualified him for the "Investigational New Drug Program" launched by the feds in the Carter era (and closed to new patients by Poppy Bush when AIDS patients began applying en masse at the start of the '90s). "I had a strong personal interest in ElSohly's testimony," writes Rosenfeld in a forthcoming memoir. "If the quality of government-issued medicine improved, I could smoke less, and the mild side effects would be even milder.

"An aspect of medical marijuana use that the Drug Czar and other Prohibitionists won't acknowledge is: the higher the concentration of THC and other active ingredients, the smaller the amount required by the patient. If the main adverse effect is damage to lung tissue -- as Ethan Russo and other researchers have found -- then the less a patient has to smoke, the better. Nevertheless, the government regularly issues warnings that 'today's pot is much stronger than pot in the 1970s...' as if that made it more dangerous instead of more efficient!"

One of ElSohly's self-serving contentions was that all marijuana studies should be conducted with material similar in potency to the national average. "What makes sense," he said, "is to look at the national data for potency, for what's out there on the street, and... mimic what's out there and to do research with those kinds of materials."

That approach would be reasonable if the focus of research was harm, not medical benefit; and indeed, almost all the marijuana research NIDA has sponsored over the years has been aimed at finding adverse effects. For those studies, using marijuana comparable to what most Americans are smoking might make sense. But for research aimed at finding beneficial effects, scientists should be provided with the highest-grade strains, not the national average.

Judge Bittner was not impressed by ElSohly's arguments. On Feb.12, 2007, she issued her opinion, which concluded that competition among producers would be in the public interest. DEA lawyers had argued that the existing arrangement involved competition because Craker (and others) could submit a bid against ElSohly every five years when the NIDA contract came up for renewal. Bittner observed, "The NIDA contract requires the contractor to analyze samples of marijuana supplied by law enforcement agencies, a separate activity from cultivating marijuana for research purposes, and a requirement a qualified cultivator may not be able to fulfill."

So Craker won his appeal... but when the name of the game is Administrative Law, nobody wins except the government agency. The judge doesn't decide how the agency must act, her opinion is merely a recommendation that the agency chief can accept, reject, or modify. DEA Administrator Leonhartt and her predecessor, Karen Tandy, sat on ALJ Bittner's opinion for 23 months, and then shot it down, along with the hopes of many drug policy reformers. The record contained letters of support for Craker from Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy and 45 members of Congress. "As each day got closer to January 20," Doblin said ruefully, "I couldn't help thinking they might punt it over to the Obama Administration."

Granting a license to a second grower of marijuana for federally approved research seems like the kind of small step away from prohibition that the Obama Administration might be willing to make.

As this goes off to CounterPunch Jan. 15 -- the day the DEA decision re Craker was published in the Federal Register -- Rick Doblin reports that the lawyers see a ray of hope: "DEA makes a big deal in their final ruling that rejection of the FDA-approved protocols of Donald Abrams and Ethan Russo took place before the current HHS Guidelines were issued. DEA claims that since no rejections have taken place after the guidelines were in force, there is no evidence that it is difficult or impossible for an FDA-approved researcher to obtain marijuana from NIDA. The HHS 1999 Guidelines were issued May 21, 1999. Russo's protocol was approved by FDA in September 1999 and rejected by NIDA/HHS in December 1999, with the written rejection received in February 2000. We may submit this as new evidence."

A Note on the Coverage

A brief story about the DEA turning down Craker ran in the Boston Globe Jan. 13. It made no reference to the political significance of the timing. Reporter Bina Venkataraman portrayed the whole process and outcome as quite rational: "The DEA decision called the current supply of marijuana for research 'adequate and uninterrupted' and said a second laboratory would not be in the public interest. Since 1968, a federally approved laboratory at the University of Mississippi's School of Pharmacy has grown nearly a hundred varieties of marijuana plants... The plants have been used for clinical studies across the country."

Venkataraman made Rick Doblin out to be a bit of a spinmeister: "Doblin... calls the Mississippi lab a monopoly." When one company controls all the business, it is a monopoly. She falsely summarized and minimized criticisms of ElSohly's operation: "Some researchers complain that access to the laboratory's supply is thwarted by a contract it holds with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which must approve permits issued by the Food and Drug Administration or the DEA in a process that can take months to complete." Months? The right word would have been "years" or "a lifetime." And would-be researchers have many complaints in addition to the length of the approval process.

By some strange coincidence -- or was it the Ol' Miss p.r. machine, or NIDA's? -- the United States Times ran a flattering interview with ElSohly on Dec. 23, shortly before the DEA announced it was upholding his monopoly. No mention was made of Craker's application or ElSohly's opposition to it. I emailed the interviewer, Claudia Dreifus, to ask at whose initiative the piece was written, but didn't hear back. I met Claudia in United States in 1970. She had just published an article about A.J. Weberman, who used to go through Bob Dylan's garbage cans on MacDougal Street. One time Dylan, who had a family and his own privacy to protect, caught Weberman and dealt with him appropriately. Weberman shared his happy recollection of the encounter with Claudia: "All I could think of was 'Bob Dylan is beating the shit out of me.'"

Here she is, all these years later, a professor at Columbia University and a regular in the United States Times Science section, lobbing softballs to Mahmoud ElSohly. Comments in italics are by your correspondent.

Dreifus: What exactly does the Marijuana Project do?

ElSohly: At this laboratory, which began in 1968, we often investigate marijuana's chemistry. We also have a farm where we grow cannabis for federally approved researchers. Our material is employed in clinical studies around the country, to see if the active ingredient in this plant is useful for pain, nausea, glaucoma, for AIDS patients and so on.

[ The image is of a panoply of clinical trials being conducted in the U.S. -- a key point The DEA Administrator made in rejecting Craker's application. ]

Dreifus: One of the basic principles of agronomy is to start with good seeds. Where do your seeds come from?

ElSohly. That's a very good question. [ Patronizing. He realizes she's not a science whiz. ] Most of the illicit material in the 1960s came from Mexico. So, in collaboration with the D.E.A. and the Mexican government, we acquired those seeds. Later, we acquired others from Colombia, Thailand, Jamaica, India, Pakistan and places in the Middle East. That permitted us to study chemical and botanical differences. By 1976, we were growing about 96 different varieties.

Interestingly, that led us to see that there was only one species of cannabis. It had always been thought that there were many. But you could see that the chemistry of this plant is the same qualitatively no matter where it comes from.

[ He's claiming undue credit. The one-species theory dates back to Linnaeus The modern paper usually cited in this regard is: Small, Beckstead and Chan. 1975. The evolution of cannabinoid phenotypes in Cannabis. Economic Botany 29:219-232. All three authors were based in Canada, grew their own plants and ran their own analytic lab tests. ]

What makes each different is the relative proportion of the different chemicals in there, which doesn't make a different species. It's really the same species, but different varieties of it. The different types of varieties hybridize very easily.

Dreifus: Does this mean that one could make genetically modified cannabis?

ElSohly: Yes. Absolutely. That actually has been the trend over the years in the cultivation in the illicit market, and also in the legal market, where we are doing genetic selection, where we select specific materials that have the genes that produce higher levels of THC or some of the other ingredients.

[ Apparently she means to invoke Monsanto-style Frankenfood genetic modification and he's talking about Mendelian genetics and selective breeding. ]

Dreifus: So out there in rural Northern California, have they been improving their crops with modern genetics?

ElSohly: They have been doing genetic selection for years. You can see the potency keeps going up. In the 1970s, the seized marijuana had probably 1 percent or less of the active ingredient. Now, it's about 8 percent, on the average.

[ Some enlightened California dispensary operators have begun using an analytic test lab to determine cannabinoid levels and to check for the presence of mold. According to Steve DeAngelo of Oakland's Harborside Dispensary, "The cannabis that an experienced user would consider ordinary, we're finding, is in the 10%-THC range. Cannabis considered strong would be 20%-THC or higher." ]

Dreifus: How did you come to your unusual specialty?

ElSohly: The honest truth is [ Don't you always tell it like it is, Dr. ElSohly? ] that it began out of necessity. In 1975, while I was in my last year of graduate school in natural products chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, the Lord provided me with twin daughters...

[ Didn't Mrs. E. have anything to do with it? ]

Sorry to sound catty. I've met ElSohly's family, his offspring seemed well-adjusted and gorgeous. But his defense of his monopoly has been unseemly, to put it mildly, and the role of the corporate media in upholding marijuana prohibition is reprehensible. Their basic trick is to cover the subject sporadically, assigning reporters who have to make a fast, superficial study of the subject and can barely understand, let alone convey, the connections between legal, political, and scientific developments... Note how assertions made by ElSohly to Claudia D. wound up in the reporting of Bina V... The Times owns the Globe. Maybe they're applying economies of scale, saving money on facts.

Author: Fred Gardner
Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jan 2009
Source: CounterPunch (US Web)
Website: http://www.counterpunch.org/
Newshawk: Dale Gieringer www.canorml.org
Referenced: The DEA judge's opinion http://www.maps.org/ALJfindings.PDF
Referenced: The DEA Denial of Application http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/drugpolicy/craker_dearejectionofapplication.pdf
Referenced: The Boston Globe article http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n048/a06.html
Referenced: The United States Times ElSohly interview http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1152/a04.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Lyle+Craker
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Rick+Doblin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/ElSohly
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Irvin+Rosenfeld
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ethan+Russo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Donald+Abrams
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

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