Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2007.9.20

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Weekly News in Audio

September 20, 2007

Members Of Congress Demand DEA Allow For The Private Production Of Pot

Defense Contractors Awarded Billions To Assist Drug War

Cannabis May Offer Alzheimer’s Hope, Study Says

Washington, DC:
Members Of Congress Demand DEA Allow For The Private Production Of Pot

Forty-five members of Congress signed a letter this week demanding that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) allow private sources to manufacture cannabis for FDA-approved clinical research.

The bipartisan letter, addressed to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, urges the agency to abide by a February 2007 ruling by DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner that found that the private production of pot is "in the public interest."

Bittner’s ruling was in response to the DEA’s rejection of a 2001 application by the University of Massachusetts (UMass) at Amherst that sought permission to manufacture cannabis for FDA-approved clinical protocols.

Because Judge Bittner’s 2007 ruling is non-binding, the DEA has no deadline to act on it.

Under current policy, all federally approved research on marijuana must utilize cannabis supplied by and grown under contract with the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). By contrast, other controlled substances 窶� including LSD, heroin, and MDMA (Ecstasy) 窶� are available to researchers from multiple private manufacturers.

In 2004, the agency's director, Nora Volkow, stated that it is "not NIDA's mission to study the medical uses of marijuana."

NIDA’s "monopoly [is] unjustified, since federal law clearly requires adequate competition in the manufacture of Schedule I and Schedule II [controlled] substances," the Congressional letter states. "The University of Massachusetts-Amherst is one of the most distinguished research universities, and it is highly qualified to manufacture marijuana for legitimate medical and research purposes. … We urge you to accept Judge Bittner’s recommendation … so that … legitimate and privately-funded scientific research will be conducted."

Representatives John Olver (D-MA) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) co-sponsored the letter. Massachusetts Senators John Kerry (D) and Edward Kennedy (D) have previously written the DEA in support of the UMass proposal.

Washington, DC:
Defense Contractors Awarded Billions To Assist Drug War

Federal contracts totaling $15 billion dollars have been awarded to five US defense contractors 窶� including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin 窶� to pay for counter-narcotics efforts overseas, according to a recent report published online by GovernmentExecutive.com.

"Contractors shall provide security and related services in support of counter-narcoterrorism," the article states. "Due to the rapid adaptability of the counter-narcoterrorist threat, special federal government spending authorities are [now] available" on behalf on the Pentagon’s Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office.

The contractors will provide equipment, material and services to the Pentagon’s counter-narcotics program, a separate Washington Post article states. The program develops and deploys "technology that aids in disrupting, deterring, and denying the flow of [illegal] drugs, people, information, money, and weapons related to illegal drug trafficking and narcoterrorism."

The size and scope of the contracts highlight the expanded role private contractors are now playing in federal anti-drug efforts, reports GovernmentExecutive.com.

Contract awardees include Raytheon Technical Services Company, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Arinc Inc., and Blackwater USA.

"The awarding of these contracts illustrates once again that the federal government’s so-called ‘war on drugs’ is not rhetorical," NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said. "To politicians and federal bureaucrats, the drug war is just as ‘real’ as America’s current military efforts in Iraq or Afghanistan 窶� though most Americans remain unaware that billions of their hard-earned dollars are being siphoned to pay for these so-called ‘anti-drug’ operations conducted by corporate mercenaries."

Dublin, Ireland:
Cannabis May Offer Alzheimer’s Hope, Study Says

Marijuana compounds offer an alternative approach for treating the neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to a forthcoming review in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

Investigators at the Trinity College, Institute for Neuroscience, in Dublin report that cannabinoids have been shown to protect neurons from the deleterious effects of amyloid plaque 窶� the primary pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s. Cannabinoids also demonstrate a propensity to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, while also promoting neurogenesis (the birth of new neuronal cells), authors report.

Authors write: "In recent years the proclivity of cannabinoids to exert a neuroprotective influence has received substantial interest as a means to mitigate the symptoms of neurodegenerative conditions. … [C]annabinoids offer a multi-faceted approach for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease by providing neuroprotection and reducing neuroinflammation, whilst simultaneously supporting the brain's intrinsic repair mechanisms by augmenting neurotrophin expression and enhancing neurogenesis. … Manipulation of the cannabinoid pathway offers a pharmacological approach for the treatment of AD that may be efficacious than current treatment regimens."

Preclinical studies have demonstrated that cannabinoids can delay disease progression in animal models of several neurodegenerative diseases, including multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease).

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