FDA DECLARES MARIJUANA HAS NO MEDICAL VALUE

The Statement Contradicts View of Government Scientists in 1999

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 FDA spokeswoman, said the statement resulted from a
combined review by 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."

Bro said that the FDA was issuing the statement because of numerous
inquiries from Capitol Hill but would likely do nothing to enforce it.
"Any enforcement based on this finding would need to be by DEA, since
this falls outside of FDA's regulatory authority."

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. It found marijuana to
be "moderately well-suited for particular conditions, such as chemo-
therapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting."

Dr. John Benson, co-chair of the Institute of Medicine panel that
examined the research into marijuana's effects, said that the FDA
statement and the combined review by other agencies were wrong. The
government "loves to ignore our report," said Benson. "They would
rather it never happened."