SOUDER CRITICAL OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

FDA Urged To Warn Canadian Seller.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to
send a warning letter to a Canadian company that sells medical-use
marijuana. It is legal in Canada to possess, grow and sell marijuana
for medical purposes.

In a letter sent this week, Souder asked the acting commissioner of
the Food and Drug Administration to tell the Canadian company,
Amigula, that it can not send marijuana to U.S. customers and that
"any advertisements promoting marijuana for a medical purpose will be
regulated under the existing rules that apply for direct-to-consumer
marketing of drugs, including stating the adverse health risks."

Warren Eugene, the founder of Amigula, said his company does not sell
to U.S. customers. A form that Amigula's customers are required to
fill out requires the buyer's name, address, gender, telephone number
and two photos.

"We don't ship into the U.S.," Eugene said Thursday.

Eugene said Souder should not involve himself in Canadian
policies.

Souder, who chairs a subcommittee that oversees the FDA and federal
drug policies, told FDA Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford to
"immediately send warning letters to all states, localities and
sellers of marijuana explaining that botanical marijuana has not been
approved by the FDA for medical use and cannot be advertised as such
and imposing penalties, as appropriate, on those that continue to
illegally promote this dangerous drug as medicine."

Nine states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington - permit the use of marijuana.
Legalization is under consideration in other states, including
Connecticut, Illinois and Vermont.

In December, a federal court ruled that the federal law prohibiting
medical marijuana may not apply to sick people who live in states that
permit marijuana to be used for medical reasons and who have a
doctor's recommendation.

Some doctors and ill people say marijuana relieves the pain and nausea
associated with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other
diseases.

Souder has frequently said that is a bogus argument.

"There are no generally recognized health benefits to smoking
marijuana," he said in a congressional debate last summer.