A group of researchers appeared at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) this week to call for the agency to allow them to grow marijuana for use in medical experiments, the Washington Post reported May 24.

Currently, all U.S. marijuana researchers must rely on a crop grown under government supervision at the University of Mississippi -- a product that researchers claim is of low quality and hard to obtain. Researchers like Richard Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies and Lyle E. Craker of the University of Massachusetts have petitioned the DEA for years for permission to grow their own marijuana for research studies.

Recently, a DEA administrative law judge sided with the researchers, saying that Craker should be allowed to grow marijuana. "The DEA has an opportunity here to live up to its rhetoric, which has been that marijuana advocates should work on conducting research rather than filing lawsuits," said Doblin. "It's become more and more obvious that the DEA has been obstructing potentially beneficial medical research, and now is the time for them to change."

The DEA contends that the current system is working and that allowing others to grow marijuana could lead to drugs being diverted to illicit use. A DEA spokesperson said the petition is being reviewed; the judge's ruling is merely advisory, as the DEA will still make the final decision on whether to allow Craker to grow marijuana.