Recent ruling by the FDA

Doobie Brothers

Hypocrites! There. I said it.

It may come as no surprise to you that I’m referring to a recent ruling by the FDA. But what might surprise you is just how blatant the hypocrisy is this time.

Laws & loopy logic

Is it even the least bit conceivable that an herb would have no medicinal value while a synthetic drug developed from the active ingredient of that herb WOULD have medicinal value? Does that compute? No. But on planet FDA it all makes perfect sense.

You might wonder what they’ve been smoking over there at the FDA, especially because the active ingredient I’m referring to is tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as THC, the chemical in marijuana thatwell, you know what it does.

Before we go any further let me make it clear that I’m not opening a debate about whether or not marijuana should be legalized. Nor am I promoting marijuana usage in any way. Marijuana is a controlled substance. That’s the law of the land. Period.

But in this case, FDA officials have completely tossed out the laws of logic. And in the process they’ve made it shamelessly clear that when you have federal regulatory powers you can bend reality into any shape you please.

Smoke gets in your eyes

We’ll start in 1999 when a committee at the Institute of Medicine (a branch of the National Academy of Sciences) reviewed a body of research and concluded that marijuana is “moderately well suited” for relieving the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and for treating AIDS wasting by stimulating the appetite.

In response, some states legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, but the Supreme Court handed down a decision last year that overruled those laws. The result: We now have a huge gray area where enforcement of the law is unpredictable and the moral questions about how to treat people in pain have been officially dismissed.

That brings us up to this past April when the FDA announced that the medical use of marijuana is not supported by research (in obvious contradiction to the Institute of Medicine report). The New York Times reported that the FDA statement was a response to “numerous inquiries from Capitol Hill.”

Numerous “inquiries”? Translation: Political pressure produced the statement.

Totally wasted

Here’s where it gets infuriating.

Last month I was stunned to come across this headline over an Associated Press article: “Synthetic Marijuana Returning to Market.”

Almost one month to the day after the FDA announced that marijuana had no medicinal value, the FDA gave approval to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to resume selling Cesamet; a prescription drug that treats nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. The active ingredient: synthetic THC.

So it has no medicinal benefits when you grow it in your own basement, but when a drug company develops it in a lab and stuffs it in a bottle with a wad of cotton, it’s a medical marvel.

Sources:
“F.D.A. Dismisses Medical Benefit from Marijuana” Gardiner Harris, The New York Times, 4/20/06, nytimes.com
“Synthetic Marijuana Returning to Market” Associated Press, 5/16/06, ap.org
“Lemonade Helps Kidney Stones” Daniel DeNoon, WebMD Medical News, 5/24/06, webmd.com