MEDICINE SHOULD BE DETERMINED IN THE LAB, NOT THE POLITICAL
SPHERE

JULIETTE KAYYEM'S Dec. 12 column on medicinal marijuana ("The
government's marijuana problem," Op-ed) misses the boat.
Reclassifying marijuana would not allow doctors to prescribe the
drug, nor make it OK for pharmacists to dispense it. The US Food and
Drug Administration requires drugs to go through a rigorous safety
and efficacy approval process before allowing them to be prescribed.

Moreover, marijuana-derived medications, such as Marinol and Cesamet,
have been reclassified, and are available by prescription. Recently,
the FDA ruled that raw marijuana does not meet its general standards.
The drug failed an eight-factor scientific analysis that examined
hundreds of studies on the plant's health effects. The National
Academies of Sciences' Institute of Medicine determined "there is
little future in smoked marijuana as a medically approved medication."

We don't smoke opium to reap the benefits of morphine, nor do we chew
willow bark to receive the effects of aspirin. We should not have to
smoke marijuana to get potential therapeutic effects from its components.

Medicine should be determined in the lab by the scientific process,
not by way of the ballot box, legislative initiative, or personal
opinion. Such practice impedes good medicine and puts public safety
and health at risk.

Heidi Heilman

Weston