FDA says marijuana has no medical use

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it does not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes.

In a statement, the regulator said studies by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which administers the Controlled Substances Act, provide sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful. It reiterates is uncompromising stand that marijuana meets the three criteria for placement on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act -- a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.

The FDA's statement also cited studies done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and National Institute for Drug Abuse, which held out that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana and no trial data supported its safety or efficacy as a medicine.

The FDA said measures initiated in a number of states to accord a medical status to marijuana are "inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process," and are then proven safe and effective.

A spokesperson for the agency, Susan Bro, said FDA had issued the statement in view of several inquiries from Capitol Hill. She, however, said, FDA would not do anything on its own to enforce a ban on the substance. "Any enforcement based on this finding would need to be by D.E.A. since this falls outside of F.D.A.'s regulatory authority," she said.

Eleven states in the U.S. have legalized medicinal use of marijuana, an action, contested by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the director of national drug control policy, John P. Walters.

There is a Supreme Court decision made last year, which provides for the federal government to arrest anyone found to possess the substance, even for medical purposes, and in the states, which have legalized its use.

The FDA's statement is a contradiction of a review carried out by the Institute of Medicine in 1999, which found marijuana to be "moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting."

Some scientists and legislators feel FDA's statement is an indication that politics overrides science. There are scientists who had undertaken studies of marijuana for medical purposes, who say the federal government had discouraged research. They say the ingredients in the substance have been found to provide relief to patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. However, the federal government says drugs containing a synthetic form of the active ingredient in marijuana, and which are FDA-approved, should work. The Drug Enforcement Administration and prosecutors believe any approval for marijuana will lead to an increasing use of the substance for recreational purposes.

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