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116 * CONCEPTION AND BIRTH principle." The DEA agreed to give me the Schedule I permit. However, my contact there, Ms. L., called with some bad news. "Diversion Control blocked the permit." "Who's Diversion Control?" I asked. "T'll try and get your request exempted. I'll call you next week." The next day, Ms. B. from the DEA, the woman who had broken the logjam, called to say that Dave was indeed a manufacturer and would need additional security requirements. I didn't know what to say. I told her, "I don't know what to say." "Here's the name and phone number of the DEA agent in Indianapo- lis, near Purdue University. He's responsible for that area. He'll tell Dr. Nichols what he needs to do." She called back that day. "I'm sorry. Dr. Nichols is making another drug, and we mixed up that one with your DMT request. My error. You may go ahead as you were planning." Dave called later that week, saying the lawyers at Purdue were advis- ing him not to make the DMT because of liability issues. I called Mr. W. at NIDA and asked him if there were ever any malpractice claims resulting from studies using their Schedule I drugs. He offered some encouraging news: "We've never been sued for pro- viding marijuana, a Schedule I drug, for human research. Just make sure you've got an airtight informed consent document." He called back that day and put the NIDA attorney on the phone. The attorney said, "You'd be sued first, then your university, then maybe the FDA, and last and most remotely Dr. Nichols. All he's doing is making it according to FDA regulations. He's not deciding who gives what dose to whom—that's your responsibility." I told Dave this, and he replied, "I hope you know what you're doing. This is a real leap of faith for me and our lawyers." May and June involved finding laboratories to run the FDA-required tests on the DMT once it arrived. One test required the DMT to be sent out, and the first two laboratories I contacted refused to work with a Sched- ule I drug. Finally a third company agreed to do the testing. By July 1990, Dave had made the drug and was running all the tests