“Most of the illicit material in the 1960s came from Mexico. So, in collaboration with the D.E.A. And the Mexican government, we acquired those seeds. Later, we acquired others from Colombia, Thailand, Jamaica, India, Pakistan and places in the Middle East. That permitted us to study chemical and botanical differences. By 1976, we were growing about 96 different varieties.”
-Mahmoud A. ElSohly, professor at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi
the Economic Plant Garden of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi
UMISS Garden for Higher Learning
At the Coy W. Waller Laboratory Complex on the campus of the University of Mississippi lies a hidden garden. The garden was meant to be a plot for higher learning, for the government.
The hidden garden is the only federally legal marijuana garden in the United States growing cannabis under the cloak of secrecy since 1968…
In 1968, the National Institutes of Health along with the Bureau for Narcotics(DEA predecessor) contracted the University of Mississippi to grow the governments stash…
United States National Institute of Health, University of Mississippi marijuana plantation site, showing variation in plant size. A tall fiber-type of hemp plant is shown at left, and a short narcotic variety (identified as “Panama Gold”) at right.
Labeled The Marijuana Research Project or M-Project, Dr. Coy Waller, director of the newly established Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (“RIPS”, I can’t even make this stuff up), under the School of Pharmacy, oversaw the project.
A area next to the original Economic Plant Garden was fenced off and tight security instituted.
With seeds hitting the soil, it would be the first legal cannabis seeds to sprout from American soil since the Hemp for Victory campaign…
University of Mississippi, M-Project
Carlton Turner at the University of Mississippi M-Project storage room
The Just Say No Years…
Dr. Carlton Turner took over early operations of M-Project and by 1976 had amassed over 96 different varieties of cannabis…
Carlton Turner would leave M-Project in the 80’s to become the Director of Drug Abuse Policy in the Reagan White House…
You can thank Mr. Carlton Turner for campaign’s like ‘Just Say No’…
Giving an interview in October 1986 to Newsweek, Carlton Turner said that “Marijuana leads to homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and ultimately, AIDS.”… I shit you not…
Mahmoud ElSohly at the University of Mississippi/cnn
“My first job here had to do with poison ivy. Then a better-paying position opened up at the Marijuana Project, and I moved to that. I liked the research, and I got on well with my supervisor and mentor, Dr. Carlton Turner, who later became the director of drug abuse policy in the Reagan White House. So, this work, it just happened. “
-Mahmoud A. ElSohly
Taking over for Dr. Turner, his understudy, Dr. Mahmoud Elsohly oversaw the program. He continues to run the program to this day.
University of Mississippi cannabis field, 1995
The cannabis grown at the University of Mississippi is said to go to “Federally Approved Researchers”…
M-Project also supplies the surviving federal medical patients grandfathered into the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program.
University of Mississippi
With very little research granted and a recent $68.8 million contract extension, adding acreage to the outdoor garden to now total 12 acre’s & with an inside facility “at least 1000 square feet, having controls for light intensity, photo cycles, temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration” growing in excess of 30,000 plants, one has to wonder?….
Who is all this cannabis for?
Marijuana plants grow inside the Coy W. Waller Laboratory Complex at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi cannabis field
University of Mississippi, M-Project field, 2010