MAPS sent a letter today to NIDA Director Nora Volkow, Ph.D., responding to a November 18, 2003 letter from Dr. Volkow to Rick Doblin. This exchange of letters was part of a package of material that MAPS sent today to members of NIDA’s National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (NACDA) requesting that NACDA recommend to NIDA that it write to DEA expressing support for Prof. Craker’s application for a license for a marijuana production facility at UMass Amherst.
Dr. Volkow indicated in her thoughtful but careful letter that since NIDA’s mission doesn’t include the medical use of marijuana, that it wasn’t appropriate for NIDA to recommend that DEA license the UMass Amherst facility. In reply, Rick Doblin noted that, “it is precisely because NIDA’s mission doesn’t include the study of the medicinal uses of marijuana that NIDA’s monopoly on the supply of marijuana for FDA-approved medical research is so inappropriate. I request you reconsider your decision not to recommend a change in the status quo.”
