CITY POLS VS. FEDS OVER MEDICAL POT

WASHINGTON - An unusual alliance that includes liberal New York
congressmen and one of President Bush's most powerful conservative
advisers is trying to bust a government monopoly on growing marijuana
for research.

Several medical groups, the United Methodist Church and 38 members of
Congress, including Manhattan Democrats Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn
Maloney, are backing activist Rick Doblin's call for the feds to
allow privately funded scientists to test medical marijuana.

Doblin argues that the sole lab growing weed for government research
at the University of Mississippi is not looking into different
strains and different potencies. And he's received important backing
from Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and
a National Rifle Association board member, who is also urging
licensing of the first privately funded program.

"The bipartisan support is important," said Doblin, head of the
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

But it may not be enough for the Drug Enforcement Administration,
which contends the Mississippi lab can provide enough weed to
researchers studying the healing capacity of medical marijuana for
people with AIDS, glaucoma and other ailments. The lawyers also
question whether privately funded labs will keep the pot from the
streets.

Doblin is teaming with botanist Lyle Craker, a University of
Massachusetts plant scientist with no history of involvement in the
legalization movement. Craker argued at DEA hearings earlier this
month that his project would provide researchers with multiple
strains of marijuana with varying potency levels.

The DEA will decide in the next several months whether to grant a
license to grow research pot.