<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Came a tribe from the north buzzed and bold . . . I-D-A-H-O . . . Idaho, Idaho . . . GO, GO, GO.</div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of The Cannabist at:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.thecannabist.co/2015/01/02/colorado-seeks-federal-permission-state-colleges-grow-marijuana/26486/">http://www.thecannabist.co/2015/01/02/colorado-seeks-federal-permission-state-colleges-grow-marijuana/26486/</a></div><div><br></div><div>-------------------------------------</div><div><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.8em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1.25; font-size: 2.75em; font-family: Lora, Georgia, Times, serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Colorado seeks federal OK for state colleges to grow pot</h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Colorado has made an unusual plea to federal authorities: Let our colleges grow pot.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a letter sent last month, the state attorney general’s office asks federal health and education officials for permission for Colorado’s colleges and universities to “obtain marijuana from non-federal government sources” for research purposes.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The letter isn’t more specific on how the state’s higher-education institutions might score weed. But it was sent pursuant to <a href="http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2014a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/D9A3D581C1128B5D87257C620055A505?Open&file=155_enr.pdf" title="SB 14-155" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">a law</a> <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24888054/colorado-officials-want-grant-7-million-medical-pot" title="Colorado officials want to grant $7 million for medical pot studies" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">passed in 2014 </a>requiring state officials to ask that Colorado colleges and universities be allowed “to cultivate marijuana and its component parts.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Current research is riddled with bias or insufficiencies and often conflict with one another,” reads the letter, written by deputy attorney general David Blake. “It is critical that we be allowed to fill the void of scientific research, and this may only be done with your assistance and cooperation.”</span></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; clear: both; margin: 1.25em 0px 1.1875em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><a href="http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/12/17/8-million-medical-pot-research-grants-paying-eight-studies/25534/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Marijuana research on tap:</b> Colorado approves $8M in medical marijuana research grants, studies</font></em></a></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; clear: both; margin: 1.25em 0px 1.1875em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The request is a longshot.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">While marijuana is, with qualifications, legal in Colorado, it remains illegal under federal law, and getting permission to conduct research on cannabis requires clearing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/us/politics/medical-marijuana-research-hits-the-wall-of-federal-law.html?_r=0" title="Medical Marijuana Research Hits Wall of U.S. Law" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">a set of high hurdles</a> — approval from multiple federal agencies and strict requirements on how marijuana must be handled and stored. Researchers that work without the federal government’s blessing risk losing crucial federal funding for their institutions, not to mention possible imprisonment.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An <a href="http://www.unodc.org/pdf/convention_1961_en.pdf" title="Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">international treaty</a> that the United States signed onto requires the federal government to designate only one place in the country that can legally grow marijuana for research. <a href="http://archives.drugabuse.gov/about/organization/nacda/MarijuanaStatement.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">Since 1968</a>, that place has been the University of Mississippi’s <a href="http://pharmacy.olemiss.edu/ncnpr/research-programs/cannabis-research/" title="NCNPR cannabis research" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">National Center for Natural Products Research</a>, which cultivates cannabis <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-monopoly-20140529-story.html#page=1" title="Mississippi, home to federal government's official stash of marijuana" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">on a 12-acre plot</a> and sends it to approved researchers.</span></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; clear: both; margin: 1.25em 0px 1.1875em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><a href="http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/09/28/disciplinary-cases-marijuana-cu-boulder-drop-dramatically/20401/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Meanwhile, on CU-Boulder’s campus:</b> Disciplinary cases for marijuana at CU-Boulder drop dramatically</font></em></a></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; clear: both; margin: 1.25em 0px 1.1875em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Coincidentally, the National Institute on Drug Abuse recently put the government’s pot-farm contract <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=2a58e20030a50628e34d9e7565de6be4&tab=core&_cview=1" title="Production, Analysis, and Distribution of Cannabis and Related Materials" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">up for rebid</a>. Applicants needed to have 12 acres of “secured and video-monitored” outdoor space and 1,000 square feet of indoor space to grow marijuana and to be able to make marijuana extractions, test for potency and “prepare, preferably by hand-rolling, a small batch of marijuana cigarettes,” according to the official solicitation.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The contract’s winner is expected to be announced in the next couple of months. A spokeswoman for the National Institute on Drug Abuse would not say how many institutions applied for the contract or where they were. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Spokesmen for the University of Colorado and Colorado State University said their schools did not apply.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Drug Enforcement Administration <a href="http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/05/06/u-s-government-grow-1430-pounds-weed-dea-registered-research/11281/" title="U.S. government to grow 1,430 pounds of weed for medical research" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">in 2014 massively increased</a> the amount of pot the government’s official supplier can grow — <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/05/05/2014-10202/controlled-substances-adjustment-to-the-established-2014-aggregate-production-quota-for-marijuana" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">from 21 kilograms to 650 kilograms</a>. The increase was the result of a boom in marijuana research interest, and the University of Mississippi <a href="http://www.leafscience.com/2014/03/25/u-s-federal-marijuana-farm-offer-new-strains/" title="U.S. Federal Marijuana Farm To Offer New Strains" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">has pledged</a>to grow new strains of marijuana to give researchers more options for their studies.</span></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; clear: both; margin: 1.25em 0px 1.1875em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><a href="http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/12/26/marijuana-edibles-colorado-recreational-sales/26100/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Edibles everywhere:</b> Appetite for edibles in Colorado (45 percent of legal marijuana marketplace) big surprise of 2014</font></em></a></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; clear: both; margin: 1.25em 0px 1.1875em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, the Colorado attorney general’s letter says the federal government falls short of being able to supply researchers with the kinds of products available in Colorado’s commercial marijuana market. State health officials have just <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27153602/med-pot-group-sues-health-department-over-use" title="Colorado Board of Health approves medical marijuana research grants" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">approved up to $8.4 million in grants</a> for marijuana studies, some of which <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_25946384/colorado-preparing-spend-9-million-medical-marijuana-research" title="Colorado preparing to spend $9 million on medical marijuana research" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">will examine Colorado-specific products</a>. But the attorney general’s office says more needs to be done.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We need the support of our federal partners to overcome the inertia that continues to complicate state efforts in this area,” the letter states.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Steve Herin, a master grower at Incredibles, works on repotting marijuana plants in a grow facility last August in Denver. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><img src="cid:54DB67CF-9856-44D4-93F0-D3CD1BF2411A" alt="image1.jpeg" id="54DB67CF-9856-44D4-93F0-D3CD1BF2411A"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/cannabis/Colorado_Pot_Grower.jpg">http://www.moscowcares.com/cannabis/Colorado_Pot_Grower.jpg</a></p></div><div>-------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><b>"Wasted Away Again in Marijuanaville"</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://youtu.be/-MaPyurRHaA">http://youtu.be/-MaPyurRHaA</a></span><br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>