State Weighs Medical Marijuana Use

1968 was a time when the popularity of marijuana was exploding. Young people across the country were lighting up and living by the motto "turn on, tune in, drop out."

Since the 1930's the U.S. government has made videos warning of the dangerous marijuana, but no one really knew anything about why the drug made the users high.

Then in the 1960's scientists figured out why pot smokers got high. The composition of tetrahydrocannabinol was discovered, also known as THC.

The government's response to THC was to create the National Institute of Marijuana Project.

For the first time, our cameras are given unprecedented access to the only government run marijuana farm located on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Mississippi.

The program's director, Dr. Mahmoud Elsohly gave FOX13 an exclusive tour.

"This is the only place in the country that actually has the responsibility of producing marijuana for research. We have very good quality material. We can produce any quality that is needed for the research program."

In the Marijuana Project grow room, scientists use the same methods an illicit dealer would use. Here scientists grow only female plants in almost constant light. Male plants have lower THC and can cause allergies to users.

There are dozens of varieties of marijuana plants here. When the pot is harvested, it is stored in a high security vault. Each bin contains about 30 pounds of marijuana, with dozens of bins in the vault. The marijuana cigarettes are then sent out to research facilities across the country.

Scientists research the effects of the marijuana cigarettes on aids, cancer, and glaucoma patients and test for pain relief and appetite stimulation, just to name a few trials.

Elsohly says to get the effects of THC, users don't have to smoke it. He says for activists, it's often just a way to justify the drug use.

Smoking marijuana gives users a high, but he says that is not necessary to reap the medical benefits of THC.

"A very small amount of THC can produce therapeutic results. When people smoke they're taking a lot more THC then you need."

Still, there is a lot of support for medical marijuana, including in Memphis.

State senator Beverly Marrero out of East Memphis is sponsoring a bill to legalize medical marijuana in Tennessee.

"It's not something we feel is advantageous, to criminalize patients. So many prohibitions really don't work very effectively. So if we can make this legitimate, tax it, regulate it."

Marrero says taxation could help the ailing state economy. Currently 13 states have legalized marijuana- such as California which has medical marijuana clubs where patients can pick up their pot prescriptions. But Marrero says the concept isn't likely to see much support here right now. Legalization for recreational use is not her intent.

But the legalization movement is going strong, with organized support groups at colleges nationwide.

Margie Smith is a student at Rhodes. Smith thinks alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous and addictive than smoking pot.

"Pot is just something it seems like a lot of people do and nobody really thinks is a big deal. I'm against the government regulating things such as pot because I really don't feel it's a very dangerous drug."

But Elsohly says the research is clear, marijuana is an addictive drug. He says legalization would essentially put the Marijuana Project out of business.

"If marijuana becomes legal, then anybody could produce it and we'd be like any other grower or manufacturer."

And the research done here extends to illicit marijuana as well. The Marijuana Project has found, contrary to a popular theory by pot smokers, the stronger the smell doesn't always mean the stronger the product.

"You can have strong smell without the high THC, sometimes there is, sometimes, there's not."

Back in the vault- researchers store more than just the medical marijuana grown on site, there are evidence boxes full of pot samples confiscated from drug raids across the country. The Marijuana Project sees as many as 4,000 samples from drug seizures every year.

Experiments are done on the samples. The buds are sifted and sorted and the THC is extracted and tested. The Marijuana Project has been tracking where pot is grown and the potency of it for years for the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The THC potency has been climbing rapidly. On the street you find marijuana that's 14, 15, 16, 20, 25 percent, but the research done at the Marijuana Project has found a potency of 8 percent THC is strong enough to achieve therapeutic results to patients.

It has been a long road traveled for this leafy green plant once thought of as a deadly narcotic and researched out of fear, to now, legal in some areas, on the verge of acceptance in others - and on the forefront of medical technology.