DEA Obstructing Research

A pair of federal lawsuits was to be filed today, July 21, in which…

“…researchers charge the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and National Institute on Drug Abuse with obstructing medical marijuana research in violation of federal law. […] The DEA is also charged in the suit with blocking a MAPS-sponsored study of vaporizer technology, which has the potential to reduce or eliminate smoking-related hazards associated with medical use of marijuana. The proposed study uses no human subjects and thus carries no possible risk of harm; it simply involves analyzing the vapor stream produced by the device for the presence of active marijuana components, called cannabinoids, and for the unwanted contaminants that occur in smoke. […]

“This litigation is necessary because of the federal government’s obstructionism regarding medical marijuana research,” said Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. “The government regularly claims that if marijuana were really medicine, it would already have been approved by the FDA, and that more research is needed, yet they have not only failed to support medical research, they’ve actively obstructed it.”

[Source: Common Dreams | Scientists Sue Federal Government]

The legal complaints can be downloaded in .pdf format here and here.