New Hearing for Craker?

[Stokes]

A new medical marijuana DEA Administrative Law Judge hearing was
formally launched on Monday, February 7. Prof. Lyle Craker, UMass
Amherst, filed a request for a hearing about DEA's proposed rejection of
his application for a license to establish a MAPS-sponsored facility to
produce marijuana exclusively for federally-approved research. Our goal
is to break the government's monopoly on the supply of marijuana that
can be used in FDA-approved research, thereby creating the proper
conditions for a $5 million, 5 year drug development effort designed to
transform smoked and/or vaporized marijuana into an FDA-approved
prescription medicine.

MAPS has arranged for a consortium of lawyers to represent Prof. Craker
on a pro-bono basis. These lawyers include lead counsel Julie Carpenter
of Jenner and Block (DC law firm), Allen Hopper, ACLU Drug Law Reform
Project, and Emanuel Jacobowitz of Steptoe & Johnson (DC law firm).
The estimated value of this pro-bono support is more than $100,000.

Within about a week, the DEA ALJ office will issue a timetable for the
submission of prehearing statements, with DEA being given 3 weeks and
Prof. Craker being given 6 weeks, ending about March 28 or so. The ALJ
will then review the prehearing statements and schedule a meeting with
the lawyers to discuss the scope of the case, probably taking place
sometime in April. At that meeting, the date for the hearing itself will
be set. Most likely, the hearing will take two days and take place in
DC in late spring/early summer.

The two main issues to be argued are 1) whether it is in the public
interest for there to be a facility at UMass Amherst producing marijuana
for federally-approved research and 2) whether US international treaty
obligations permit DEA to issue a license to a privately-funded
production facility.

If anyone has any suggestions about people who are likely to be
particularly effective witnesses for either of these issues, please let
me know.

Rick Doblin (rick@maps.org)
MAPS
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Where love is, there God is also.

-Mahatma Gandhi