WASHINGTON -- April 22 -- Researchers battling federal obstruction of medical marijuana research have reached the next stage in the dispute, filing a pre-hearing statement in preparation for a hearing before an administrative law judge this summer. The scientists -- whose efforts to establish a research facility aimed at developing marijuana as an FDA-approved prescription drug have been blocked by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration -- will discuss current developments in a telephone press conference convened by the Marijuana Policy Project and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday, April 25, at noon eastern time.

"With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule on an important medical marijuana case, this effort to end federal obstruction of medical marijuana research is crucial," said Steve Fox, MPP director of government relations. "At least one justice suggested that patients go to the FDA for relief, but DEA obstructionism has effectively shut that door."

WHAT: Telephone press conference to discuss developments in the effort to overcome Drug Enforcement Administration obstruction of medical marijuana research.

WHO: Lyle Craker, Ph.D., director, medicinal plant program, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Rick Doblin, Ph.D., president, Multidisciplinary Institute for Psychedelic Studies; Allen Hopper, staff attorney, ACLU; Steve Fox, director of government relations, Marijuana Policy Project; Phillip Alden, patient living with AIDS who dropped out of a medical marijuana study due to the low quality of government-grown marijuana that researchers are forced to use.

WHEN: Monday, April 25, 2005, noon EDT.

TELEPHONE NUMBER: 1-866-704-5415; code # 9836438.

With more than 17,000 members and 150,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana -- both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit such use. MPP believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. For more information, please visit MarijuanaPolicy.org.

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