FDA and Pot (different point)

[DGS49]

So consider the following:

The FDA has approved hundreds of potentially harmful drugs, because through research they have found that there are tangible, measurable health benefits that can be obtained by using them.

Consider, morphine, oxycontin, methadone, etc. Consider the number of prescription and OTC medications that contain significant amounts of alcohol.

But with all of the anecdotal "evidence" of the possible benefits of marijuana (and its contituent chemicals), the FDA has never approved it for any legitimate medical purpose. And consider that there are millions of people around the country who have been informally and formally campaigning to have it approved - even recognizing that all approval would mean would be that it could be legally prescribed throughout the fruited plain - and not just in a few renegade states.

Is it POSSIBLE that there is simply no beneficial use for MJ where there are not many other approved drugs already on the market that are just as good?

I had a conversation with my PA legislator last night and he (a former prosecutor) said that he would never support a legalization statute until the FDA comes around on this issue. Unless there is some benefit (the harms are in some dispute), he sees no point in legalizing it.

Please don't tell me about the little girl whose siezures miraculously went from 100 per day to 1 every three months after smoking dope. This is nothing more than a questionable anecdote.

 

[sjay]

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Is it POSSIBLE that there is simply no beneficial use for MJ where there are not many other approved drugs already on the market that are just as good?

There are two situations that I know of where MJ works better than any accepted medication,releiving extreme nausea from chemo and inducing sleep in CHRONIC insomnia. Every other medication for insomnia is either addictive and or loses effect after a couple of weeks, now that's not very helpful when your insomnia is chronic.WIth mj you don't have to increase dosage and it does not lose effectiveness. With chemo my brother wasted away from 200 athletic pounds to an emancipated 120 lbs.many meds where tried but none helped,there were no more meds to try.Then his wife's friend got some mj to try and the nausea subsided, he got his appetite back and lived seven more years at a healthy 180lbs.

 

[DGS49]

I believe you, but this is anecdotal. Like the little girl whose siezures were alleviated.

The FDA presumably will look at any valid scientific study, and the fact that they have not approved MJ for treatment of ANYTHING is noteworthy, especially when several states have legalized "medical marijuana," and there must be a mountain of case histories available. Still no definitive, documented benefit that would justify FDA approval.

Is their inaction POLITICAL? I guess that's what I'm driving at. Is the Justice Department pressuring the FDA to stay away from the MJ issue, since there remain several Federal laws prohibiting the sale and use of MJ, and if the FDA were even considering sanctioning MJ as a medical treatment, the Federal prosecution of these cases would seem...well, stupid. Not to mention making people who are currently incarcerated for MJ-related offenses seem like sympathetic victims.

Just wonderin'.