DRUG DEBATE: FDA DENIES MEDICAL VALUE OF MARIJUANA

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for reasons that are
far from clear, chose to enter the debate over medical marijuana with
a thoroughly unscientific aE" one might even say anti-scientific aE"
blanket denial that marijuana has any medical value at all.

Specifically, the grandiosely titled "Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding
Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine" referenced a "past
examination" that "concluded that no sound scientific studies
supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States,
and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of
marijuana for general medical use."

That is simply not true. As Scientific American magazine noted on its
Web site the next day, the statement simply ignores "the existence of
a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of
Sciences, which concluded that marijuana was aEmoderately well-suited
for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and
vomiting and AIDS wasting.'"

The Institute of Medicine report, which was commissioned by the "drug
czar" at the time, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and included a series of
hearings around the country as well as a complete review of the
scientific literature worldwide, summarized its conclusions as follows:

"Advances in cannabinoid science of the past 16 years have given rise
to a wealth of new opportunities for the development of medically
useful cannabinoid-based drugs. The accumulated data suggest a variety
of indications, particularly for pain relief, antiemesis and appetite
stimulation. For patients such as those with AIDS or who are
undergoing chemotherapy, and who suffer simultaneously from severe
pain, nausea and appetite loss, cannabinoid drugs might offer
broad-spectrum relief not found in any other single medication. The
data are weaker for muscle spasticity but moderately promising.

The least-promising categories are movement disorders, epilepsy and
glaucoma. Animal data are moderately supportive of a potential for
cannabinoids in the treatment of movement disorders and might
eventually yield stronger encouragement."

The Institute of Medicine report does say that "it does not follow
from this that smoking marijuana is good medicine," which is the only
sentence Gen. McCaffrey ever quoted.

That statement is followed, however, by noting that "patients who are
currently suffering from debilitating conditions unrelieved by legally
available drugs, and who might find relief with smoked marijuana, will
find little comfort in a promise of a better drug 10 years from now."
Therefore, "Until a nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid drug-delivery
system becomes available, we acknowledge that there is no clear
alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be
relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting."

The FDA statement was not preceded by any new studies or surveys of
the literature, it was simply posted on the agency's Web site. It
represents a willful determination to ignore science to buttress the
harmful policy of marijuana prohibition. Politics over science. Sad.