On May 22, 2020, MAPS submitted a public comment to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in response to new rules proposed by DEA to govern their review and approval/rejection process for applications seeking permission to cultivate and provide marijuana for medical research and FDA drug development efforts. These proposed new rules mark the next chapter and are a potentially major step forward in our continued struggle to end the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) monopoly on the supply of research-grade marijuana and help Professor Lyle Craker, Ph.D., obtain a DEA license to grow marijuana for clinical trials.
For nearly 20 years, MAPS has been working in association with Professor Lyle Craker, Professor Emeritus of Botany and Plant Sciences at University of Massachusetts, Amherst’s Stockbridge School of Agriculture. With MAPS’ assistance, Professor Craker has twice submitted applications for Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) registration as a bulk manufacturer of marijuana (“DEA Registration”), seeking a legal pathway to produce a MAPS-owned (but still DEA-regulated) uninterrupted and consistent supply of marijuana for our privately-funded commercial medicinal cannabis botanical product FDA drug development efforts, a central component of MAPS’ institutional mission. DEA denied Professor Craker’s first application, filed in 2001, and has yet to act on his second, filed in early 2017.
This document was signed by the following contributors:
- MAPS Founder and Executive Director Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
- MAPS Attorney M. Allen Hopper
- MAPS Policy and Advocacy Counsel Ismail L. Ali, J.D.
- MAPS Policy and Advocacy Fellow Leslie Booher, J.D., M.B.A.
