CLOUDED JUDGMENT

The FDA Becomes A Player In The Culture Wars

Last Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an
announcement saying there were "no sound scientific studies" that
justified the medical use of marijuana. The statement came at the
behest of Capitol Hill lawmakers, in particular U.S. Rep. Mark Souder
(R-Ind.). Hmm, thought The Eye, the congressional campaign diversion
issues are popping up early this year. FDA spokesperson Susan Bro
said the statement came from the combined review of past studies by
the FDA, federal drug enforcement, and regulatory and research
agencies under the aegis of the Health and Human Services Department.

These agencies had concluded, according to Bro, "smoked marijuana has
no currently accepted or proven medicinal use in the United States
and is not an approved medical treatment."

The FDA statement is at polar opposites with a 1999 report issued by
the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences
and the country's most respected scientific advisory body, that
concluded marijuana to be "moderately well suited for particular
conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS
wasting." The IOM study further urged, "marijuana's active components
are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of
AIDS wasting and other symptoms and should be tested rigorously in
clinical trials." Seven years and a new political order later, the
FDA says it had "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." Well, thought The Eye, "sound scientific
studies" are necessarily hard to find when there's no funding out
there from the federales and the drug manufacturers are trying to
protect their turf.

Dr. John Benson, professor of internal medicine at the University of
Nebraska Medical Center and co-chairman of the IOM marijuana study
committee, told the New York Times that the FDA statement and the
combined agency review behind it were flat-out wrong, saying that the
feds "love to ignore our report ... They would rather it never
happened." Eleven states have approved of medical marijuana use;
however, last year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the federal
government could arrest anyone using marijuana, even for medicinal
purposes and even in those 11 states that had approved medical marijuana.

The FDA statement said as much as well, "Any enforcement based on
this finding would need to be by the Drug Enforcement Agency since
this falls outside the FDA's regulatory authority."

Great, mused The Eye, now some little old widow lady with glaucoma
has to be on the lookout for some trigger-happy G-men.

Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy
Project, told the Associated Press, "If anybody needed proof that the
FDA has become totally politicized, this is it. This isn't a
scientific statement; it's a political statement."

Mirken points a finger at the aforementioned Rep. Souder as behind
the FDA statement, calling him "a rabid congressional opponent of
medical marijuana."

Souder is the chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee
and has said to AP that the driving force behind the medical
marijuana efforts "is simply a red herring for the legalization of
marijuana for recreational use. Studies have continually rejected the
notion that marijuana is suitable for medical use because it
adversely impacts concentration and memory, the lungs, motor
coordination and the immune system."

Maybe, but back in the 90s when AIDS wreaked its havoc here in
Charleston, The Eye didn't see any of its afflicted and dying friends
give a rat's ass about memory loss or motor coordination as they
literally evaporated from sight. They just wanted to feel better.