MARIJUANA USELESS AS MEDICINE, FDA SAYS

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
fierce political fight.

Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman, said that 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 was issuing the statement because of numerous
inquiries from Capitol Hill but would likely do nothing to enforce it,
leaving that up to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Eleven states have legalized medicinal uses of marijuana, but a
Supreme Court decision last year allowed the federal government to
arrest anyone using marijuana.

The FDA statement directly 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."