'NY Times': Researching medical marijuana is, like, hard
Believe it or not, doctors can’t get a bunch of purple-urple and run trials on people to see if it indeed mellows them out or cures macular degeneration. Such basic research is largely illegal, the New York Times has learned, all on its own.
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.
And how long do those approvals take?
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.
And do theese approvals ever get granted?
“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.”
Jeez, NYT, it’s like there’s an agenda out there to stop such research from ever occurring. But that’s just crazy talk. [New York Times]
