Home Science Researcher Sues DEA Over Low-Grade Cannabis Provided for Testing

Researcher Sues DEA Over Low-Grade Cannabis Provided for Testing

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A cannabis researcher at Arizona’s Scottsdale Research Institute plans to sue the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over what she is saying is low-grade cannabis that is unacceptable for testing. According to a report from the CT Post, Dr. Sue Sisley is making the claim that the cannabis being grown at the University of Mississippi is actually closer to hemp than what is consumed on both the legal and black markets. 

The federal government has taken control of the cannabis farm at the university and oversees what grows there. Dr. Sisley says that it is next to impossible to conduct proper scientific research and reach a valid conclusion with the government-approved cannabis that is being provided to her and her team at the research institute in Scottsdale. 

Dr. Sisley and her research team recently conducted a study on whether cannabis can help those who are suffering from PTSD. Sisley says that the cannabis that came from the farm at Ole Miss contained many stems and seeds and that some of it was moldy. She says that the cannabis wasn’t tested the right way before her and her team received it. 

“Scientists need access to options and we are handcuffed by a government-enforced monopoly that has only allowed me to study this really suboptimal study drug from Mississippi,” Dr, Sisley told the Arizona Capitol Times.

Dr. Sisley described the cannabis sent to her as being a “standardized green powder that is just cannabis ground up.” She also included the U.S. Attorney General’s office in the lawsuit, because she believes the DEA isn’t the only group who is “responsible for impeding” the access to quality cannabis that would be acceptable for her and her team to research. The PTSD study hasn’t been published yet, but it is unclear as to whether that’s due to the low-quality cannabis that was provided to her. 

Sisley told the Capitol Times that it is her hope that her lawsuit will force federal courts to allow researchers to gain access to cannabis from sources other than the farm at Ole Miss. The federal government granted Ole Miss a license to grow cannabis over 50 years ago. Sisley also said that she applied three years ago with the DEA to become a schedule I bulk manufacturer but hasn’t yet received a response. 

Only time will tell if something positive will come out of the lawsuit, and if Dr. Sisley will be granted legal access to the quality of cannabis that is required to conduct much-needed scientific research in the proper manner. 

2 COMMENTS

  1. Why would this scientist think she would get a decent Cannabis product from a DEA controlled state ran setup!
    Mississippi STILL does not allow ANY kind of Cannabis use by the public? Mississippi is ALWAYS the LAST state in the union to try ANY kind of progressive ideas.
    I am not referring to “progressive ideas” as it refers to political or social dogma but at it relates to new innovative ideas!
    These are the same knuckle dragging buffoons who have waged a bloody drug war against its own people for almost 100 years now.They could care less if their actions might prolong or cause suffering of the infirm in this nation.
    You think they will willingly provide ANY help to those who might cause them to lose their power,money,and control over their largest “drug cash cow”?
    Mississippi has a lot of great people living in the state but when it comes to government allowing its people to live their lives a THEY deem appropriate,it comes in LAST every time out of a nation of 50 states!
    My people have lived in Mississippi for over 200 years,so I kind of know what I am talking about concerning Mississippi.
    Mississippi has NO Hemp grow laws,NO Medical patient laws(The so called cannabis oil passed for epilepsy patients ONLY is a NO-GO as no one as of yet has gotten ANY oil from the state),and they sure as hell will not allow adult use Cannabis!
    I wish it were different but it is not!
    Very well written article by Jason Sander though! Also I Love Joe Glare’s videos! He is a blast,very informative and funny at the same time!
    Some help and comfort to those STILL trapped DEEP behind the lines in the government’s drug war!

  2. Since 1937, every federal definition of marijuana has been malformed by embedding this riddle to adumbrate its actual meaning: What is “all parts of the plant”, and simultaneously “does not include the mature stalks?”

    The solution is obviously cannabis smoke, but the DEA has literally misconstrued it for grudgingly approved research purposes to mean every part of the plant – except the stalks, ground up to make a “standardized green powder”. For law enforcement purposes, it has been misconstrued to mean all parts of the plant.

    The further malformed definition from the Farm Bill of 2018 contains the same riddle, but has a new exception for hemp. Hemp refers to the fibers, but the exception is determined by its THC. By letting “standardized green powder” become degraded, it can also be misconstrued to be hemp.

    This reconstruction of the malformed definition cannot be misconstrued by the DEA, and by carefully descheduling the plant it will permit cannabis research:

    The term “marijuana” means all parts of the smoke produced by the combustion of the plant Cannabis sativa L., which is, as are the viable seeds of such plant, prohibited to be grown by or sold by any publicly traded corporation or subsidiary company, and such smoke is prohibited to be inhaled by any child or by any person bearing any firearm, as is the intake of any part or any product of such plant containing more than 0.3% THC by weight unless prescribed to such child by an authorized medical practitioner.

    Only Congress can reconstruct the definition, so we must contact our members of Congress about doing so.