#F.D.A. Dismisses Medical Benefit From Marijuana - New York Times

[Guest guest]

I don't personally happen to be a fan, but I know many people with chronic pain,

and other conditions, that it has helped.

==

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/health/21marijuana.html?hp & ex=1145592000 & en=8e\

9d2dc5bc070645 & ei=5094 & partner=homepage

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/health/21marijuana.html?hp & ex=1145592000 & en=8\

e9d2dc5bc070645 & ei=5094 & partner=homepage>

 

F.D.A. Dismisses Medical Benefit From Marijuana

 

[Zeppnote: The FDA has also determined that teens

and young adults don't

like sex once they've had a preacher explain to

them that it's yucky,

masturbation causes blindness, and that cancer is

caused by " bad humours " ]

 

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By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: April 21, 2006

 

WASHINGTON, April 20 — The Food and Drug

Administration said Thursday

that " no sound scientific studies " supported the

medical use of

marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel

of highly regarded

scientists.

 

The announcement inserts the health agency into

yet another fierce

political fight.

 

Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman, said Thursday's

statement resulted

from a past combined review by federal drug

enforcement, regulatory and

research agencies that concluded " smoked

marijuana has no currently

accepted or proven medical use in the United

States and is not an

approved medical treatment. "

 

Ms. Bro said the agency issued the statement in

response to numerous

inquiries from Capitol Hill but would probably do

nothing to enforce it.

 

" Any enforcement based on this finding would need

to be by D.E.A. since

this falls outside of F.D.A.'s regulatory

authority, " she said.

 

Eleven states have legalized medicinal use of

marijuana, but the Drug

Enforcement Administration and the director of

national drug control

policy, John P. Walters, have opposed those laws.

 

A Supreme Court decision last year allowed the

federal government to

arrest anyone using marijuana, even for medical

purposes and even in

states that have legalized its use.

 

Congressional opponents and supporters of medical

marijuana use have

each tried to enlist the F.D.A. to support their

views. Representative

Mark Souder, Republican of Indiana and a fierce

opponent of medical

marijuana initiatives, proposed legislation two

years ago that would

have required the food and drug agency to issue

an opinion on the

medicinal properties of marijuana.

 

Mr. Souder believes that efforts to legalize

medicinal uses of marijuana

are a front for efforts to legalize all uses of

it, said Martin Green, a

spokesman for Mr. Souder.

 

Tom Riley, a spokesman for Mr. Walters, hailed

the food and drug

agency's statement, saying it would put to rest

what he called " the

bizarre public discussion " that has led to some

legalization of medical

marijuana.

 

The Food and Drug Administration statement

directly contradicts a 1999

review by the Institute of Medicine, a part of

the National Academy of

Sciences, the nation's most prestigious

scientific advisory agency. That

review found marijuana to be " moderately well

suited for particular

conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea

and vomiting and AIDS

wasting. "

 

Dr. John Benson, co-chairman of the Institute of

Medicine committee that

examined the research into marijuana's effects,

said in an interview

that the statement on Thursday and the combined

review by other agencies

were wrong.

 

The federal government " loves to ignore our

report, " said Dr. Benson, a

professor of internal medicine at the University

of Nebraska Medical

Center. " They would rather it never happened. "

 

Some scientists and legislators said the agency's

statement about

marijuana demonstrated that politics had trumped

science.

 

" Unfortunately, this is yet another example of

the F.D.A. making

pronouncements that seem to be driven more by

ideology than by science, "

said Dr. Jerry Avorn, a medical professor at

Harvard Medical School.

 

Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, a New York

Democrat who has sponsored

legislation to allow medicinal uses of marijuana,

said the statement

reflected the influence of the Drug Enforcement

Administration, which he

said had long pressured the F.D.A. to help in its

fight against marijuana.

 

A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement

Administration referred questions

to Mr. Walters's office.

 

The Food and Drug Administration's statement said

state initiatives that

legalize marijuana use were " inconsistent with

efforts to ensure that

medications undergo the rigorous scientific

scrutiny of the F.D.A.

approval process. "

 

But scientists who study the medical use of

marijuana said in interviews

that the federal government had actively

discouraged research. Lyle E.

Craker, a professor in the division of plant and

soil sciences at the

University of Massachusetts, said he submitted an

application to the

D.E.A. in 2001 to grow a small patch of marijuana

to be used for

research because government-approved marijuana,

grown in Mississippi,

was of poor quality.

 

In 2004, the drug enforcement agency turned Dr.

Craker down. He appealed

and is awaiting a judge's ruling. " The reason

there's no good evidence

is that they don't want an honest trial, " Dr.

Craker said.

 

Dr. Donald Abrams, a professor of clinical

medicine at the University of

California, San Francisco, said he had studied

marijuana's medicinal

effects for years but had been frustrated because

the National

Institutes of Health, the leading government

medical research agency,

had refused to finance such work.

 

With financing from the State of California, Dr.

Abrams undertook what

he said was a rigorous, placebo-controlled trial

of marijuana smoking in

H.I.V. patients who suffered from nerve pain.

Smoking marijuana proved

effective in ameliorating pain, Dr. Abrams said,

but he said he was

having trouble getting the study published.

 

" One wonders how anyone " could fulfill the Food

and Drug Administration

request for well-controlled trials to prove

marijuana's benefits, he said.

 

Marinol, a synthetic version of a marijuana

component, is approved to

treat anorexia associated with AIDS and the

nausea and vomiting

associated with cancer drug therapy.

 

GW Pharmaceutical, a British company, has

received F.D.A. approval to

test a sprayed extract of marijuana in humans.

Called Sativex, the drug

is made from marijuana and is approved for sale

in Canada. Opponents of

efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal uses

suggest that marijuana

is a so-called gateway drug that often leads

users to try more dangerous

drugs and to addiction.

 

But the Institute of Medicine report concluded

there was no evidence

that marijuana acted as a gateway to harder

drugs. And it said there was

no evidence that medical use of marijuana would

increase its use among

the general population.

 

Dr. Daniele Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology

at the University of

California, Irvine, said he had " never met a

scientist who would say

that marijuana is either dangerous or useless. "

 

Studies clearly show that marijuana has some

benefits for some patients,

Dr. Piomelli said.

 

" We all agree on that, " he said.

 

--

" Now, by the way, any time you hear the United

States government talking

about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires

a court order. Nothing has

changed, by the way. When we're talking about

chasing down terrorists, we're

talking about getting a court order before we do

so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

 

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

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