cannabisnews.com: Feds Need One Million Joints





Feds Need One Million Joints
Posted by FoM on June 24, 2000 at 09:54:53 PT
Staff Will Pay $4 Million to U of Mississippi
Source: FedBuzz
The government may be waging a war on illegal drugs, but it continually has the need for marijuana – a lot of marijuana. In fact, it has just placed an order for one million cannabis (marijuana) cigarettes and some bulk pot, both Mexican and Colombian.The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) has awarded the $4.2 million, five-year contract to the University of Mississipi School of Pharmacy, which has been growing the federally-used marijuana under previous contracts. 
The majority of the marijuana cigarettes will be used in NIDA-supported research, said Steven Gust, special assistant to the director of NIDA. “We are mandated to do research on the causes and treatment of drug addiction,” said Gust. “We currently ship marijuana to 10 researchers, mostly in universities.”“Another major category of use is for FDA (Food and Drug Administration) programs for eight patients for whom the government provides marijuana,” said Gust. “They have a variety of conditions -- cancer, glaucoma, muscular disorders.” The FDA stopped accepting patients into this medicinal marijuana program some time ago, he said.Why do eight patients constitute a “major category?” Guest replied: “Actually, some of the patients tend to use quite a bit of it.”A smaller amount of the marijuana will be used by the Department of Justice for training dogs to detect the odor of the illegal substance.The contract consolidates the government’s previous marijuana supply system, which involved separate contracts for growing and manufacture, Gust said. The University of Mississippi, which grew the marijuana under the previous, five-year, $2,248,621 contract with NIDA, will not process it as well.The contract calls for the growth and harvest primarily of Mexican and Colombian varieties of cannabis, with an annual distribution of 200,000 marijuana cigarettes (50 percent each of high and low content of THC, the psychoactive active ingredient) and 50,000 cigarettes without THC.The government also requires 1500 kilograms of bulk marijuana each year.   If more marijuana is needed during the term of the five-year contract, the government has the option to expand the marijuana field area to 1.5, 6.5 or 12 acres.The government established official marijuana production in the late 60s to provide contaminant-free marijuana to researchers probing potential medicinal use of the plant. The need for marijuana continued as the government needed the plant for research into drug abuse and to assist in monitoring the potency of the confiscated plants.Part of the marijuana will be used in research into the causes of drug addiction. Meanwhile, the Ad War on Drugs Wages On:After four years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent to persuade America's young to stay away from drugs, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is heavy into a $128 million advertising campaign.The ad campaign is being handled by the giant ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, with the nonadvertising component of the campaign handled by Fleishman-Hillard Inc., of Washington, in a contract worth $9,445,002.How is the campaign doing? It will take five years to find that out, under a $34,879,613 evaluation contract awarded to Westat, Inc., of Rockville, Md.With major help from the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania, Westat will carry out a complex research design measuring the impact of the federal government's heavy media campaign.A description of the lengthy evaluation process recently was offered by Alan I. Leshner, NIDA's director, at a Congressional hearing in March.The above contracts are just a few of the substantial research and support contracts generated by the national campaign, which can be reviewed at: http://www.mediacampaign.orgThe White House awarded to Porter-Novelli, of Washington, DC, a 1997 contract for $915,586 to provide consulting services for the anti-drug campaign, then gave notice for an unpriced, one-year option to the same company the following year.A year ago, HHS announced it would give a sole-source contract to The Advertising Council, of Washington, D.C., for work described as follows: "to serve as a clearinghouse for anti-drug public service announcements, to review the costs of new PSAs, and to create and produce a parent recruitment campaign to spur an increase in parent involvement."The one-year contract was to have four one-year options.By FedBuzz StaffWeb Posted: June 23, 2000Copyright 2000, LACommunications Inc. Related Articles:Drug Cookies http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6147.shtmlDrug Office Ends Tracking of Web Users http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6138.shtmlPropaganda for Dollars http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread4317.shtmlWashington Script Doctorshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread4291.shtmlDrug Money, How the White House Secretly Hooked TVhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread4290.shtml CannabisNews & Cannabis Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtmlhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabisnews.com.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on June 26, 2000 at 05:13:40 PT:
Schizoid government
Ever wonder how the government can support two diametrically opposed positions - supplying MMJ and the 'need' to keep it illegal - simultaneously? Because it is politically schizophrenic, that how:'The government may be waging a war on illegal drugs, but it continually has the need for marijuana – a lot of marijuana. In fact, it has just placed an order for one million cannabis (marijuana) cigarettes and some bulk pot, both Mexican and Colombian.'This is particularly telling:“Another major category of use is for FDA (Food and Drug Administration) programs for eight patients for whom the government provides marijuana,” said Gust. “They have a variety of conditions -- *cancer, glaucoma, muscular disorders.* (emphasis mine)” The FDA stopped accepting patients into this medicinal marijuana program some timeago, he said.So the government has a need to supply itself with a 'dangerous drug', medicinally prescribing this 'dangerous drug' to eight people, with specific conditions that it is meant to ameliorate, while at the same time declaring it has absolutely no medical use?This is another article that should be brought to the various political campaign meetings and their main points brought up during the Q & A's. In a nutshell, it demonstrates the total absurdity of the War on Cannabis in particular and the War on Some Drugs in toto.Because this is not a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, it doesn't even *know* it has a right hand: I'd wager a lot of DrugWarriors would be shocked to know of the Compassionate Use program and it's 8 surviving members (and I'm sure the ones who *do* know wish they could do them what they did to McWilliams!).It's rank, obvious insanity like this that needs to be brought to the public's attention, because it's the same kind of insanity fuelling this DrugWar. The same kind of schizoidal behavior that preserved the lives of 8 people has taken the lives of many more, the latest being Peter McWilliams. How many more will this literally certifiably crazy government take before it is stopped?
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Comment #2 posted by Johnboy on June 24, 2000 at 23:22:51 PT
60 minutes did a story on this
"Here we our own government SUPPLYING MARIJUANA to 8 patients in need, but is atthe same time blocking all attempts of all other Americans from getting safe, and legalaccess to this obviously efficacious medicine!"This is old news - I believe 60 Minutes did a story on the facilty and the 8 goverment patients in the 70's.However it is ironic that no-one else can be accepted into the program....ah...the goverment at work.
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Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on June 24, 2000 at 11:31:27 PT
Government Ganj
Read this quote: “Another major category of use is for FDA (Food and Drug Administration) programs for eight patients for whom the government provides marijuana,” said Gust. “They have a variety of conditions -- cancer, glaucoma, muscular disorders.” The FDA stopped accepting patients into this medicinal marijuana program some time ago, he said.Here we our own government SUPPLYING MARIJUANA to 8 patients in need, but is at the same time blocking all attempts of all other Americans from getting safe, and legal access to this obviously efficacious medicine!If everyone in our nation would read this article and learn the truth, like most of us here at Cannabisnews.com already know, shock would be an understatement!However, I do have faith, as the truth IS getting out, and we are at the threshold of victory this fall. Change is finally here. Let the people in jail for marijuana charges be released!Dr. Ganj
http://www.chrisconrad.com
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