The ruling comes at a time when research into cannabis, and its active ingredient delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is booming. Just last year, the nation's first Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) opened at the University of California, San Diego, and more projects involving the infamous weed have been approved in the last couple of years than ever before. But it's been a long time coming, and "it hasn't been easy," says University of California, San Francisco physician-researcher and professor Donald Abrams, who spent five years getting his first study on smoked marijuana funded.
Government officials have been reluctant to discuss the issue in any detail. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the agency that retains sole authority to supply marijuana for research, has been referring calls to National Institutes of Health headquarters. There, a spokesperson, who requested to remain nameless, said simply: "The Supreme Court's decision will have no impact ...
