"It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance"
-DEA Judge Francis Young
Feds Begin to Bend on Medical Marijuana
SANTA MONICA, May 21 - Americans for Medical Rights (AMR), the sponsors of several state ballot initiatives permitting the medical use of marijuana, today praised a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy, announced this morning, that opens the door to scientific research on the medical potential of marijuana and its unique compounds, known as cannabinoids.
Bill Zimmerman, executive director of AMR, called the announcement an important first step. "It seems the ship of state is beginning to turn on the issue of medical use of marijuana," Zimmerman said. "Today's news shows the federal government is finally learning from what scientists and physicians have been saying, and what the voters of several states have recently underscored: marijuana helps many patients, and we need to find ways to get its benefits to the seriously ill. These are the first signs of federal policy shifting fundamentally."
The NIH announcement follows up on recommendations from a landmark March 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which confirmed that marijuana is valuable for many patients for whom other medications do not work. The report urged the federal government to make a commitment to getting new medical marijuana research under way, to help identify its medically active compounds and deliver the benefits to patients. Only one medical marijuana study has been approved since the mid-1980s, indicating the need for more openness and clearer guidelines for researchers wishing to investigate marijuana.
Zimmerman, who is also author of, "Is Marijuana the Right Medicine for You?" (Keats, 1998), said, "The fact is that marijuana, even if it is not fully understood, clearly helps many patients. The question is what to do with this knowledge. Clearly marijuana is worth investigating and even providing as a medicine for pain relief, severe nausea, and appetite stimulation for seriously ill patients. Today's announcement by the government's top health agencies shows the first real commitment to medical marijuana research in a generation."
"In recent years," Zimmerman continued, "federal officials have publicly pleaded for science to be allowed to decide whether marijuana should be made available as a medicine. But at the same time, key agencies have fought progress on scientific research and patients' access to marijuana, and have threatened physicians who experiment with medical
marijuana."
"It appears that this two-faced federal policy is beginning to melt away," Zimmerman said. "A medical marijuana policy that promises to be friendly to physicians, patients and scientific research will be new in every respect." Legal-access program not outlined yet
Despite his overall praise for the new NIH policy, Zimmerman was critical of its failure to address the pressing issue of legal access to marijuana for patients. "There is one key piece missing from today's announcement," Zimmerman said. "In March, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended the creation of an experimental access program to provide smokable marijuana to seriously ill patients who have not benefitted from standard medications. The IOM investigators called this an important, interim step for patients who have no real alternatives while new medical marijuana research gets under way."
Zimmerman said, "We have not forgotten this key policy recommendation, and we will fight to see it implemented as soon as possible. Such a program represents the only reliable way patients across the country can obtain safe, legal supplies of medical marijuana for the next several years, before all the new studies are completed." Political efforts are still necessary.
Noting that an increased governmental commitment to scientific research does not solve the issues in the medical marijuana debate, Zimmerman said, "We will continue with our political efforts to open access to medical marijuana, beginning with a ballot initiative campaign in Maine this November, and continuing with new ballot initiatives in the year 2000. All of our efforts are meant to maximize the number of seriously ill patients who have medical marijuana as an option." "Clearly," Zimmerman said, "our efforts have begun to be successful in convincing science and medicine to confront this sensitive issue. And we now see the federal government beginning to make needed changes to policies that previously had been hostile and distinctly un-scientific." Zimmerman concluded, "Now would be the wrong time to ratchet down the fight for patients' rights. Instead, we will work to keep the government honest, and to drive policy toward safe, legal access to
marijuana for those patients who need it."