The Obama administration just put in an order for nearly a ton of marijuana; 1,430 pounds to be exact. That’s a lot of weed, and the estimated street value of that much weed is approximately $650,000. What do you think would happen to a private citizen if they were caught with that much weed? They’d probably never see the moon again, except through bars, if their cell was on the external wall side of the prison, but for the Government, it’s just business as usual.
What the Government actually does with the marijuana they buy is test it in attempts to validate the medicinal advantages that many in the medical field have proclaimed that it has. The state of Florida recently approved marijuana for medicinal purposes, stating that it has a very positive effect on people who suffer from epileptic seizures. Studies have shown that the plant (what the Government would no doubt call a “drug” as they have it listed as a class 1 controlled substance) reduces the rate of seizures in epileptic patients by as much as 90%.
The marijuana that the Government purchases is produced by the University of Mississippi, and it is used by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse to conduct research on medical marijuana.