part the seven millionth.
A Food and Drug Administration statement denying any medical benefits of marijuana reinforced the divide between U.S. officials and the states that have approved the drug's use in certain cases.
Talk about your understatement. The DEA and various anti-drug warriors in this (and previous) administration don't believe in science anymore than they believe in the almighty Pasta-in-the-sky.
“It's consistent with the long-held federal view on this medicine, and that is that marijuana is the equivalent of heroin and cocaine,” said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for California's attorney general, Bill Lockyer. “California voters disagree.”
Full disclosure, I've partaken of all three drugs, and they are certainly not equivalent. I've known plenty of folks who have ruined their lives with either heroin or cocaine, but never even heard of anyone who was a slave to the herb to the extent that their life was subsumed by the drug. Not to belabor the point, but I've also known plenty of people who have used (even heavily) heroin and cocaine and never had problems.
Several officials in the 11 states that allow medical marijuana disputed the F.D.A.'s contention that there was no research supporting the drug's medical use. They noted, in particular, a 1999 review by the National Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific advisory panel, which found marijuana to be “moderately well-suited” to some conditions, including wasting disease from AIDS and the nausea that often results from chemotherapy. ... The Food and Drug Administration issued its announcement in response to calls from opponents of medical marijuana in Congress, and it was welcomed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which has long made marijuana its top priority.
This is the federal government's position: drugs are evil because we say they are, and any scientist or citizen who has the temerity to suggest otherwise is an idiot or a dupe of the anti-prohibition forces. The FDA (and other three-initial federal agencies) have a long, long history of allowing, nay insisting, that political expediency trumps science.
Can I have my country back? The country where citizens were free to conduct their lives without interference by the nanny-state?
Complete article here F.D.A.'s Report Illuminates Wide Divide on Marijuana, and a brief discussion of marijuana science here.
