FDA FAILS TO EASE THE PAIN

The Food and Drug Administration under the Bush administration is no
stranger to mixing science with politics, but the debate over the use
of marijuana for medical purposes is unnecessarily cruel.

FDA officials refused support last week for using marijuana to treat
some of the more pernicious effects of cancer and AIDs treatment.
Several states have passed laws that would allow patients to use
marijuana for medicinal purposes. Yet, the FDA concluded that states
do not have the "rigorous" scientific scrutiny to make a determination
about the use of the drug.

The FDA apparently isn't following "rigorous scrutiny" either. The
National Academy of Sciences' own Institute of Medicine said in 1999
that marijuana had been shown to greatly aid patients in treating the
nausea and pain of cancer and AIDS.

FDA claims the medical marijuana push is part of a drive to legalize
marijuana. That debate shouldn't concern FDA. Officials can fight that
fight another day. The agency's only obligation is to see that the
drug can be safely administered to ease the suffering of millions.

Marijuana isn't the first place the FDA has injected politics into
medicine. The inaction of the FDA in deciding whether the
morning-after pill can be sold without a prescription demeans a wealth
of scientific data. Opponents say the pill is tantamount to abortion
when it is meant to avoid pregnancy from occurring.

Pain from cancer and other life-threatening ailments can be agonizing.
Of course, not every patient responds to marijuana, but not every
patient responds to any one drug. Doctors need wide leeway to find
what works for individual patients. Ideally, marijuana would be
prescribed the same way other controlled substances are prescribed.

If the FDA wants to make a case, let it do pilot programs and make a
better argument than bashing pot-smokers. People suffering from
serious illnesses want relief, not fun. Their government should be
able to provide it.