FDA PUTS POLITICS BEFORE SCIENCE

What happened between 1999 - when the Institute of Medicine, part of
the nation's leading scientific advisory agency, found that marijuana
probably had some medicinal value - and today, when the Food and Drug
Administration says it has none?

Has there been a broad, federally funded study of marijuana as
medicine that brought science to a new conclusion? No.

Has there been a shift in the consensus of the scientific and medical
communities that marijuana is "moderately well suited" for treating
certain medical conditions? No.

Has there been a politicizing of science by the Bush administration
in general and the FDA in particular? Bingo.

No doubt, the same impulse that has caused the FDA to ignore its own
medical advisory panels and reject emergency contraception as an
over- the-counter option for women is also driving this new
interpretation of old data on medical marijuana. The FDA statement is
as much about politics and appeasing conservatives as scientific inquiry.

The FDA statement suggests that "no sound scientific studies support
medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no
animal or human data support the safety or efficacy of marijuana for
general medical use." Of course, the primary reason there have been
so few studies is that the administration has erected roadblocks to
clinical research.

Highly regarded medical scientists who have attempted to evaluate
marijuana's efficacy have been repeatedly stymied by being denied
federal funding or having the Drug Enforcement Administration reject
their requests to grow the plant for research purposes. It would
appear that the administration would rather issue politically driven
conclusions about marijuana than learn the truth.

Much to the chagrin of the administration, 11 states have now
legalized medical marijuana and public opinion has shifted
dramatically toward allowing patients access to the drug. The 1999
report by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of
Sciences, found that "marijuana's active components are potentially
effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of AIDS wasting and
other symptoms." It pushed for further testing, but that never happened.

The manipulation of science for political purposes will be one of
President Bush's legacies. The FDA statement is just another example
of a formerly respected science-based agency going from objective
analyst to administration mouthpiece.