(Headline USA) The federal government rewarded hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in grants to a number of recipients who spent that money to perform cannabis and e-cigarette experiments on animals, according to a government watchdog.
White Coat Waste Project revealed in a report on Wednesday that the National Institutes of Health awarded $246 million in federal grants to researchers who experimented on animals by getting them high on THC or making them consume nicotine.
In one experiment at the Oregon Health and Science University, monkeys were given cannabis edibles so that researchers could assess the outcome of THC on reproductive health. The NIH gave these researchers $169 million.
In another experiment at Indiana University, researchers injected pregnant mice with marijuana byproducts. They were awarded $1.5 billion.
And at the University of California, San Diego, researchers were awarded $24 million to get lobsters high on marijuana.
Not only are these experiments ridiculous, they are also illegal, according to the White Coat Waste Project. The NIH is required by law to disclose certain details about the experiments funded through grants, but the NIH has refused to disclose how much of the $246 million awarded to these grant recipients went directly toward the experiments in question.
“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.
Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc., argued the watchdog’s report indicates clear examples of government waste.
“It sounds like a bunch of researchers were sitting around thinking of the most absurd use of money they could come up with and seeing if the government would fund it,” he said. “And they found out they would.”
