Food and Drug Administration
In 2006, the FDA - after six years of stalling - published the results of a study on whether or not marijuana has medicinal benefits. The FDA's opinion is so contrary to the testimony, evidence, and scientific research that it begs the obvious question: "Why is the FDA lying about medical marijuana? What do they have to gain from it staying illegal?"
In 1996, the Clinton Administration commissioned a study by the prestigious Institute of Medicine to settle the debate. The study cumulated into a report entitled 'Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base', and was released in 1999. This report concluded that marijuana has significant medical potential, and most of the hurdles for development of treaments based on the raw plant and/or pill form are political and capital gains questions.
There is overwhelming evidence that marijuana has medicinal benefit. It is obvious FDA opinions are based more on politics than truth.
The FDA opinion stated that marijuana has no medicinal benefits. This is a lie. They completely ignored the IoM report. I quote their exact words, from http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01362.html:
"A past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use."
Back in 1972 ex-Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Philip Shafer chaired a panel of politicians, academics, researchers, and scientists who were convened to study the effects of citizen marihuana use on society. Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, the official report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse submitted to Congress on March 22, 1972, concluded marihuana use was harmlessly ingrained in the fabric of society and to criminalize by prohibition its use would persecute a segment of society causing tremendous harm to the people.
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, 786,545 people were arrested for marijuana offenses in 2005 alone. The report states that of the figure, 696,074 people (89% of all marijuana arrests) were arrested for possession alone. Thats 696,074 American citizens wrongly persecuted, their lives possibly thrown into chaos because the punishment is worse than the crime. The 2005 National Survey on Drug Use & Health estimates 14.6 million regular marijuana smokers in the USA. Using a bit of math, that would mean that for every eighteen (18) people who use, sell, or grow marijuana, only one is actually caught. Of those, researchers have no way to know who uses marijuana for medical use and who uses it for pure recreation, except for where data may exist in states where medical marijuana has already been legalized.
Ever since the Clinton administration commissioned the Institute of Medicine report, research into medical marijuana has exploded. The number of ailments which marijuana has been found to be useful for easing the pain and suffering has expanded. It is now scientifically accepted that marijuana is beneficial for alzheimers, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, diabetes mellitus, dystonia, fibromyalgia, gastrointestinal disorders, gliomas, hepatitis C, hypertension, incontinence, osteoporosis, puritis, rheumatoid arthritis, sleep apnea and Tourettes Syndrome. A comprehensive study of recent research on medical marijuana can be found in the NORML report Emerging Clinical Applications For Cannabis & Cannabinoids (PDF). Run a search on Google for "medical marijuana" and you will easily find further research proving the benefits of marijuana in comforting and easing the pain and suffering of cancer, nueropathy, stress, headaches, and more.
The interaction of over 400 cannaboids and other chemicals in marijuana with the human brain have given relief to the sick among us for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Marijuana is so complex and universally beneficial for so many ailments their have been and are now religions that consider marijuana a gift from god. However its complexity can not be duplicated by pill. So you've got pharmaceutical companies - big campaign donors - against decriminalizing marijuana.
You have to realize, the people in DEA, Justice Department, and other such organizations who insist that possession of marijuana remain a crime have jobs which if marijuana were decriminalized would be lost. Every advertisement, every person you hear or read saying marijuana has no medicinal benefit stands a chance of losing their job is marijuana were legalized. There are ten of thousands of people employed by the government whose job is to arrest, prosecute, guard, and oversee the probation of those 696,074 citizens yearly persecuted for possessing marijuana.
There is self-interest at play here in the FDA's opinion that marijuana has no medicinal benefit. One could say that it is actually unethical for the government employees to ignore the science to protect their own jobs. Yes, hundreds of thousands of Americans are arrested and jailed to protect government jobs.
The FDA knowingly and purposely lies in its report that marijuana has no medicinal benefit. The FDA lies to protect the status quo. For political correctness.