Professor Lyle Craker, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, with assistance from MAPS, continues to pursue his lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for rejecting his application for a license to grow marijuana for federally regulated research under contract to MAPS and in doing so to break the monopoly held by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). On January 30, 2009, lawyers for Prof. Craker filed a Motion to Reconsider the DEA’s January 14, 2009, final order rejecting the DEA Administrative Law Judge’s February 12, 2007, recommendation that it would be in the public interest for the agency to license Prof. Craker. On December 6, 2010 (nearly two years later), we received a memorandum from DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart (who was recently confirmed by the US Senate) detailing the reasons why our request to reopen the trial was rejected. Leonhart did, however, grant us the opportunity to submit another written brief objecting to her final order. Prof. Craker will be submitting his brief on or before the deadline of March 7, 2011. The DEA could take days, months, or years to reply.
