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A worker cultivates a special strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte's Web inside a greenhouse, in a remote spot in the mountains west of Colorado Springs, Colo.

(The Associated Press/Brennan Linsley)

Colorado's colleges and universities have asked the federal government for permission to grow marijuana for research purposes, the Denver Post reports.

The only federally sanctioned marijuana grow is located at the University of Mississippi, where government workers tend cannabis plants at a 12-acre site.

John Ingold, who covers marijuana for the Denver Post, reports that Colorado's higher ed officials want to pursue cannabis-related research.

Reports Ingold:

In a letter sent last month, the state attorney general's office asks federal health and education officials for permission for Colorado's colleges and universities to "obtain marijuana from non-federal government sources" for research purposes.

The letter isn't more specific on how the state's higher-education institutions might score weed. But it was sent pursuant to a law passed in 2014 requiring state officials to ask that Colorado colleges and universities be allowed "to cultivate marijuana and its component parts."

"Current research is riddled with bias or insufficiencies and often conflict with one another," reads the letter, written by deputy attorney general David Blake. "It is critical that we be allowed to fill the void of scientific research, and this may only be done with your assistance and cooperation."

Colorado last month awarded more than $8 million for medical marijuana research to study whether the drug treats post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy and other health problems.

In another marijuana news, the Colorado Springs Gazette obtained a memo reporting that pot use among soldiers in Colorado and Washington is down.

Reports Gazette staff writer Tom Roeder:

The change in Washington and Colorado, where legal pot is available near large Army bases, is small. But it's the reverse of what military leaders said would happen in Colorado Springs with marijuana legalization.

"With one minor exception, the data is trending downwards, though it remains relatively flat and the changes are statistically insignificant," Army spokesman Lt. Col. Justin Platt wrote in an email from the Pentagon.

-- The Oregonian