057
The Feds Say They Want Scientific Proof That Marijuana Is Medicine, But Do They? NIDA has a monopoly on the supply of marijuana that can be used for research. The Institute seems to be using that monopoly to obstruct the very research they're supposed to be facilitating. So some scientists are suing the DEA, NIDA, Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health for "unreasonable delay" resulting in the obstruction of scientific research. Science should be in the hands of scientists, not political ideologues.

This advertisement appears in the National Review, the New Republic, the American Prospect, The Nation, Reason Magazine and The Progressive in the winter of 2005.

This PSA is also available in camera-ready PDF.
THE FEDS SAY THEY WANT SCIENTIFIC
PROOF THAT MARIJUANA IS MEDICINE.

BUT DO THEY?
Three years ago scientists from the University of Massachusetts and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies1 applied to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for a license to grow a research plot of marijuana.
No response.
A year ago, they asked the DEA for permission to import 10 grams from the Dutch Office of Medicinal Cannabis.
No response.
Then they asked the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to sell 10 grams from NIDA's marijuana farm at the University of Mississippi.
Still no response.
The researchers could, of course, get all the marijuana they need from any high school or college campus in the country but that's not legal. NIDA has a monopoly on the supply of marijuana that can be used for research.2 The Institute seems to be using that monopoly to obstruct the very research they're supposed to be facilitating.

So the scientists are suing the DEA, NIDA, Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health for "unreasonable delay" resulting in the obstruction of scientific research.

Science should be in the hands of scientists, not political ideologues.
Common Sense for Drug Policy
www.CommonSenseDrugPolicy.org  www.DrugWarFacts.org
H. Michael Gray, Chair; Robert E. Field, Co-Chair
1 For further information, contact www.maps.org
2 NIDA was given a monopoly only on the supply of marijuana and not on any other Schedule 1 drug.