Millions of Americans take prescription drugs to treat a plethora of illnesses and symptoms, but not all drugs are created equal. The question of whether or not to consider marijuana a viable medical treatment remains a hot button issue. In states like California, medical marijuana clubs have flourished despite their federal illegality. Should the federal government allow states to make their own decisions, or is marijuana nothing more than a dangerous narcotic?
The U.S. government has bent over backwards not to learn that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine. Though the IND is officially a research program, the government has never studied its own patients.
The only study that has ever been published of these patients was privately financed and conducted. It found that while the government-supplied marijuana was of poor quality, it "provides effective symptomatic relief of pain, muscle spasms, and intraocular pressure elevations," with relatively mild side effects. This enables the patients to have "improved quality of life" -- in part by allowing them to reduce or eliminate their use of prescription medications, avoiding their side effects.
Typically in science, successful pilot studies lead to larger, more advanced trials. And there is a group of researchers at the University of Massachusetts who want to do just that: grow specially selected strains of marijuana for studies in treating specific conditions, designed to develop marijuana as an FDA-approved prescription drug.
The government is blocking them. In February 2007, Drug Enforcement Administration Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled in favor of the scientists, but the DEA still has not allowed their research project to go forward.
The federal ban on medical use of marijuana is based on a deliberate policy of ignoring scientific data and stifling new research on medical uses of marijuana. This unscientific and irrational ban should be lifted immediately.
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