Lyle Craker has never seen a live marijuana plant. But the medicinal plant and herb scientist, who has been a professor at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for more than 35 years, has found himself in a haze of legal battles with the government for the chance to grow cannabis for US researchers.
Craker was first approached by cannabis advocate Rick Doblin in 2001 about helping to change the fact that for 37 years, the government has had a contract with just a single marijuana grower. Founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Doblin has been struggling since the early 1990s to successfully steer research on the medical benefits of marijuana through government regulations. In Craker, Doblin found his ideal scientific ally, whom he called a Rosa Parks for marijuana research: a tenured senior faculty member without ties to the movement for the legalization of marijuana and ...
