Once and a while I come across an article that reminds me of that other ridiculous war going on-The War on Drugs. (Our government is losing that one too…)
From today’s New York Times:
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that “no sound scientific studies” supported the medical use of marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel of highly regarded scientists.
…
The Food and Drug Administration statement directly contradicts a 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s most prestigious scientific advisory agency. That review found marijuana to be “moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting.”
Dr. John Benson, co-chairman of the Institute of Medicine committee that examined the research into marijuana’s effects, said in an interview that the statement on Thursday and the combined review by other agencies were wrong.
The federal government “loves to ignore our report,” said Dr. Benson, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “They would rather it never happened.”
…
Dr. Daniele Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine, said he had “never met a scientist who would say that marijuana is either dangerous or useless.”
Studies clearly show that marijuana has some benefits for some patients, Dr. Piomelli said.
“We all agree on that,” he said.
The government is against the medicinal use of marijuana to ease the pain of those who are suffering from AIDS and cancer. Why? Surely the government is aware of the medicinal use of morphine to ease the pain of people suffering from the same diseases and, as far as I know, morphine is a controlled substance too.
What is it about marijuana that the government despises? Is it that they spend billions of dollars to no avail in trying to stop people from smoking it? Just think of how many bombs and bullets they could buy with all that money they waste on trying to control marijuana use.
0 Responses to “Ignoreland”