In one experiment, taxpayers footed an estimated bill of $1.5 million for pregnant mice to be injected with marijuana byproducts. In another, an estimated $24 million went toward getting lobsters high on marijuana before killing them.
GABE KAMINSKY: Federal grant recipients broke the law while spending an estimated $246 million in taxpayer dollars for cannabis and e-cigarette animal experiments, a new report by a group opposing publicly-funded animal testing finds.
White Coat Waste Project’s report, published Wednesday, highlights 10 instances of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funneling money to researchers experimenting with getting animals high on THC or making them consume nicotine…
One experiment, which began at Oregon Health and Science University in 2012, involved giving monkeys cannabis edibles to assess the outcome of THC on reproductive health. The grant recipients received roughly $169 million in taxpayer dollars marked for this experiment…
In another experiment at Indiana University, taxpayers footed an estimated bill of $1.5 million for pregnant mice to be injected with marijuana byproducts. At the University of California, San Diego, an estimated $24 million went toward getting lobsters high on marijuana before killing them.
“The scientists subsequently measured levels of THC in tissue samples from some of the lobsters, including gills, brain, heart, liver, tail and claw. Claw samples where [sic] boiled for 10 minutes to determine if THC levels were reduced or eliminated by cooking,” a university press release for the study from last year said…
All of the experiments are in violation of The Stevens Amendment, a provision that requires federal grant recipients from the Department of Health and Human Services to disclose certain details, White Coat Waste Project says. It is unclear how much of the $246 million allocated for the experiments was used, since, as the group explains, the law requiring specific disclosure has not been followed. Grant recipients are supposed to report how much of an experiment’s costs are taxpayer dollars and the amount of non-government source money was used. The NIH did not respond to a request for comment…
“The blunt truth is that tens of millions of tax dollars are going up in smoke for half-baked marijuana and vaping experiments on animals and NIH-funded white coats are breaking federal law by not disclosing how much they’re wasting to get animals wasted,” Devin Murphy, a spokesperson for White Coat Waste Project, said in a statement to The Daily Wire…
White Coat Waste Project is recommending an audit on NIH animal drug experiment spending and a mandate for NIH to monitor its grantees for compliance with The Stevens Amendment. The group is also demanding Congress pass the Cost Openness and Spending Transparency Act — which would make the amendment cover all executive branch agencies and allow taxpayer dollars to be withheld from parties in violation. SOURCE…
STATEMENT FROM WHITE COAT WASTE PROJECT:
DEVIN MURPHY: Back in February, White Coat Waste Project (WCW) revealed wasteful marijuana experiments on monkeys. The press was surprised (and dismayed) to learn how much money had been spent on these experiments — the taxpayer-funded grants received $14 million in 2021 alone! — and it quickly made the rounds on social media, prompting flurries of laugh emojis. This experiment, however, was just the tip of the iceberg.
Just in time for tax week — and 4/20 — WCW’s new report, UP IN SMOKE, explores the wacky and wasteful world of taxpayer-funded cannabis and e-cigarette experiments on animals, and how they’re violating federal spending transparency law… Up In Smoke offers recommendations for reform, including auditing the NIH’s funding of wasteful recreational drug experiments on animals, and strengthening spending transparency laws, so Americans know how their tax dollars are being spent…
Even though taxpayers funded every experiment in this report, you wouldn’t know that from reading their press releases. We found that not a single experiment was in compliance with the Stevens Amendment, a longstanding transparency law requiring grant recipients to disclose any public funding for their experiments. Not one! We’ve filed a complaint with the NIH to hold these rogue labs accountable. SOURCE…
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