FDA: NO SOUND 'PROOF' FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Statement Contradicts Review by Institute of Medicine Saying It Was
Well-Suited for Some Ills.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration declared Thursday that
"no sound scientific studies" support the medical use of smoked
marijuana. The statement, which contradicts a 1999 review by top
government scientists, inserts the health agency into yet another
political fight.

Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman, said the statement resulted from a
combined review by federal drug enforcement, regulatory and research
agencies that concluded that "smoked marijuana has no currently
accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an
approved medical treatment." She said that the FDA would likely do
nothing to enforce the statement.

Eleven states have legalized medicinal uses of marijuana, but the Drug
Enforcement Administration and the nation's drug czar, John Walters,
have opposed those efforts.

The FDA statement contradicts a 1999 review by the Institute of
Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's
most prestigious scientific evaluative 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-chair of the Institute of Medicine committee that
examined the research into marijuana's effects, said in an interview
that the FDA statement and the combined review by other agencies were
wrong. The federal government "loves to ignore our report," he said.