BOSTON, May 10, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --
The following is being released by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS):
On Friday, May 11, the United States Court of Appeals for the First
Circuit in Boston, Mass., will hear oral arguments in a federal lawsuit
against the Drug Enforcement Administration for denying University of
Massachusetts-Amherst Prof. Lyle Craker a license to grow marijuana for
privately funded medical research. The arguments are the culmination of
nearly 11 years of legal and administrative proceedings seeking to end
the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) monopoly on the supply of
marijuana for research.
The lawsuit is a response to an August 15, 2011, final order issued by
the DEA rejecting a DEA Administrative Law Judge's 2007 recommendation
that it would be in the public interest to grant Craker the license. A
laboratory at the University of Mississippi funded by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse is currently the only facility in the U.S.
permitted to grow marijuana for research.
Craker is represented in the case by Washington, D.C., law firm
Covington & Burling LLP and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Craker first applied in June 2001 for a DEA license to start a marijuana
production facility at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst under
contract to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS), a non-profit research and educational organization whose mission
includes developing marijuana into an FDA-approved prescription
medicine. Prior to Craker's application, NIDA had refused to sell
marijuana to two FDA-approved MAPS-sponsored protocols, preventing them
from taking place.
In September 2011, NIDA refused to sell marijuana to a third
FDA-approved MAPS-sponsored protocol, this one of 50 U.S. veterans with
chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
preventing it from taking place. MAPS and Craker are working to open the
door for privately funded drug development studies conducted under FDA
regulations.
Despite increasingly widespread recognition of marijuana's therapeutic
benefits and formal policies in 17 states and the District of Columbia,
the federal government still insists that marijuana is a dangerous drug
with no medical value. Even if MAPS and Craker's efforts to open the
door for privately funded, federally regulated non-profit medical
marijuana research are successful, it will likely take a decade for
marijuana to become an FDA-approved prescription medicine. In the
meantime, getting PTSD patients access to the treatments they need will
depend on the continuing success of state-based medical marijuana policy
reform.
DOCKET TO BE CALLED FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012 AT 9:30 A.M
COURT OF APPEALS PANEL COURTROOM, 7TH FLOOR
BEFORE JUDGES: Torruella, Lipez, Howard09-1220 Lyle E. Craker v. Drug
Enforcement AdministrationAppellant 15 min. Appellee 15 min.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a
501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational organization that works
with government regulatory agencies to develop whole-plant marijuana
into an FDA-approved prescription medicine.
More information is available at
www.maps.org/research/mmj .
The Petitioner's Reply Brief in Lyle E. Craker v. Drug Enforcement Administration is available at
www.maps.org/mmj/dealawsuit/2012.05.04_Craker_Reply.pdf .
SOURCE Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
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