The reason, they say, is that the legalization of the drug here has raised questions about its health effects, questions that can only be answered by studying large amounts and different strains of marijuana.
But researchers face bureaucratic hurdles in scoring pot from the one federally approved marijuana farm, a 12-acre facility at the University of Mississippi's National Center for Natural Products Research.
In a letter to federal regulators last month, Colorado Deputy Atty. Gen. David Blake said research into the "medicinal value or detriment of marijuana, particularly those strains not grown and made available by the federal government, have become important to the national debate over marijuana legalization."
Current research, he said, is "riddled with bias or insufficiencies" and federal help is needed to fill in the gaps.
