No pot for prof

Despite strong support from Capitol Hill big shots, professor Lyle Craker (pictured) got a big thumbs down from the Drug Enforcement Administration last week in his bid to grow marijuana for medical research.

A horticulturalist and head of the medicinal plant program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Craker challenged the government’s monopoly on the production and distribution of the plant at its growing facility at the University of Mississippi, reported The Associated Press.

He claimed that the government’s marijuana isn’t strong enough for researchers to adequately make scientific breakthroughs, nor is there enough for a wide breadth of study.

U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry supported those claims, and in 2007 a federal judge sided with Craker, recommending that the DEA grant him an application to grow the plants for Food and Drug Administration-approved research.