UMass Prof. Denied The Right To Study
MA – Lyle Craker, Professor of Plant Science at UMass Amherst may be taking the Drug Enforecement Agency (DEA) to court after they denied his appeal to grow marijuana for medinal purposes.
Craker submitted his request in 2001, and was first rejected by the DEA in 2006. The DEA Chief Administrator initially ruled against issuing the license, only for a separate DEA judge to rule in favor. The final verdict will not be decided for another 18 months, however Craker plans to take the DEA to court in the event that they deny his license again.
“If the DEA administrator denies this, then we can go to court outside the DEA and then the DEA has to follow the court ruling,” he said. “The court makes their own decisions, so I don’t know if I’ll be denied. Who knows, this is ultimately a political decision.”
The DEA has repeatedly blocked attempts by scientists and researchers to grow marijuana in order to study its potential medical properties. A medical researcher was quoted as saying, “It is almost like the government is censoring our research at this point.” Even the second biggest medical association in the United States, the American College of Physicians, released a statement this year asking that more research be done on medical marijuana.
Craker adamantly believes that ill patients have a right to medicine that could potentially help them, and that clinical trials need to be done on that medication. “Have there ever been any clinical trials that actually demonstrate this [the claim that marijuana inhibits vomiting and is of medicinal value] better than a placebo? The answer is no, so that’s why you have to do research on it,” Craker said. “If clinical trials show there is no difference [in using marijuana for medical purposes] than giving somebody sugar water, then go ahead and keep it illegal.”
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