As Major Medical Marijuana Vote Nears, Congressional Scrutiny of DEA Reaches Fever Pitch

The "Hinchey Amendment," offered by U.S. House of Representatives member Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) during consideration of the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, would prevent the U.S. Department of Justice from spending funds to interfere with medical marijuana in any state that has authorized medical marijuana use.

The Hinchey vote comes at a time when Congress has focused unprecedented scrutiny on DEA’s continued obstruction of medical marijuana research. Two months ago, a U.S. Department of Justice-appointed administrative law judge, Mary Ellen Bittner, recommended that DEA grant a license to University of Massachusetts professor Lyle Craker permitting cultivation of research-grade marijuana to be used in Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved studies that aim to develop marijuana as a legal, prescription medicine. Despite this recommendation, DEA has yet to act on professor Craker’s nearly six-year-old application.

"DEA insists that it can and will arrest medical marijuana patients while at the same time blocking the very scientific research needed to firmly and fairly settle this debate," said Allen Hopper, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Professor Craker in his lawsuit currently appealing his denied application to grow medical marijuana at the University of Massachusetts for medical reseach

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