SANTA CRUZ DRUG RAID

To the Editor:

Christopher Krohn, the mayor of Santa Cruz, Calif., asks how he ended up in
a tug of war with the Drug Enforcement Administration over his support for
medical marijuana (Op-Ed, Sept. 21). But his tug of war is not with the
D.E.A. but with the scientific community.

Neither the scientific community nor the Food and Drug Administration has
concluded that smoking marijuana is medicine.

The D.E.A. supports the study of marijuana for safe medicinal purposes. It
was because of studies approved by the agency that the drug Marinol was
developed. Marinol is medical marijuana. It is an F.D.A.-approved
prescription drug based on the active ingredient of marijuana, THC.

The D.E.A. has authorized further studies of smoked marijuana as medicine.
But until science concludes that smoking marijuana has a true medical
value, the agency is mandated by law to stop trafficking of this drug.

ASA HUTCHINSON

Director, Drug Enforcement Administration

Washington, Sept. 24, 2002