How do we know marijuana isn’t helpful if we can’t test it?
Aug 12, 2016, 11:03 AM
The Drug Enforcement Administration has finished its latest evaluation of marijuana and the verdict: no pot for you.
The decision, course, frustrates people who don’t see marijuana as being in any way dangerous. But Chuck Rosenberg, Acting Administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration says it’s not about that.
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“It’s not about danger, he said. “Stuff in ‘Schedule One’ could be really dangerous or not as dangerous. It’s whether or not it’s a safe or effective medicine.”
The DEA is keeping the federal ban on marijuana, on the grounds it hasn’t been proven safe or effective. The Catch-22 is that keeping it illegal has prevented the kind of research necessary to prove once and for all whether it is safe and effective.
Dr. Thomas Bellavia of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, certainly thinks it works. He’s been prescribing it to his Multiple Sclerosis patients for three years now.
“MS patients have a better quality of life, people with glaucoma do much better, and especially for people who have been in auto accidents and have chronic pain, it really does a great job for them.”
Which may be why, even as the DEA was keeping marijuana on the no-smoke list, the Obama administration removed some of the restrictions on marijuana research, which right now can only be legally conducted at the University of Mississippi.
That DEA’s canna-phobia is ridiculous to Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance.
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“They really have their head in the sand,” he said. “And so, I think this is an agency that time and again has proven that it is out of step with science research, public opinion, political movement on this issue. And I think today’s decision is another example of that.”
But don’t worry. The feds won’t be rounding up people with MS and Glaucoma.
The Justice Department will stick with its position that patients and doctors who dabble in marijuana will not face prosecution, even if they inhale, as long as they follow state law.
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