Feds Need One Million Joints, Staff Will Pay $4 Million to U of Mississippi
June 24, 2000
Source: FedBuzz
www.fedbuzz.com
Cannabis News
www.cannabisnews.com
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 governments 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:
www.mediacampaign.org
The 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 Staff
Web Posted: June 23, 2000
Copyright 2000, LACommunications Inc.
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