Medical Marijuana

Interesting article about the research route for medical marijuana. It appears that the reason there is not more research showing the benefits of MM is that the only supply available to researchers is through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which controls the supply grown at the University of Mississippi. As their name implies, they do not want any benefits shown for marijuana use.

"As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use," said Shirley Simson, a spokeswoman for the drug abuse institute, known as NIDA. "We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana." Researchers investigating LSD, Ecstasy and other illegal drugs can use any of a number of suppliers licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Dr. Doblin said. And if a researcher wants to use a variety of marijuana that the University of Mississippi does not grow--and there are many with differing medicinal properties--they are out of luck, Dr. Doblin said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/health/policy/19marijuana.html?th&emc=th