Sadly, I think this is a correct decision and a reflection of the willingness of the marijuana fanaticals like Lee at Horsesass. to misuse the law to get their candy legalized. The DEA and FDA’s job is to see that substances approved for use as drugs meet established scientific criteria. The DEA’s point is that marijuana can not be equated to the chemicals that have passed FDA clinical tests. Even if certain chemicals in marijuana have some clinical benefit, the chemicals are already available as approved drugs. There are ready some places where you can get marijuana online for example, somewhere like get kush, as well as others places and some states are beginning to look into how marijuana could help medically.
The key parts of the DOE decision are these:
(Marijuana is defined as) all parts of the plant Cannabis Sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin
2) Marijuana has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
extracted from any part of such plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture,
or preparation of such plant, its seeds or resin. Such term does not include the mature stalks of
such plant, fiber produced from such stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any
other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such mature stalks
(except the resin extracted there from), fiber, oil, or cake, or the sterilized seed of such plant which
is incapable of germination (21 U.S.C. 802(16)).
According to established case law, marijuana has no “currently accepted medical use”
because: the drug’s chemistry is not known and reproducible; there are no adequate
safety studies; there are no adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy; the
drug is not accepted by qualified experts; and the scientific evidence is not widely
available.
3) Marijuana lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision. At present, there
are no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved marijuana products, nor
is marijuana under a New Drug Application (NDA) evaluation at the FDA for any
indication. Marijuana does not have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in
the United States or a currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions. At this
time, the known risks of marijuana use have not been shown to be outweighed by
specific benefits in well-controlled clinical trials that scientifically evaluate safety and
efficacy.
Bottom line, while THC can be (and has been) studied as a drug, marijuana has not. THC, the pure active ingredient in cannabis, does have some clinical effects and, I suspect could .. on its own .. be approved as a low level controlled substance. Marijuana, however, is a plant and any patient using it is getting a very variable mixture of things and clinical uses of plants cannot be tested in the way we test any defined compound. However, more and more countries are legalizing marijuana use and a recent example of this is Canada. They have recently fully legalized recreational marijuana which can even be bought from online sites like Grasscity.com making it super easy to get ahold of it. Surely it must have some benefits if a country is fully legalizing it? There are now many different places to find marijuana products because of this legalization, for example, you can buy shatter online in canada as well as other products which are available to consumers. Above all it is undeniable that cannabis manufacturers are adapting to the times. In some areas, cannabusinesses are booming in fact, and as a result waste solutions for cannabis manufacturers and other related businesses seem to be benefitting from the increased availability of cannabis plants. It will, therefore, be interesting to see what the future holds for cannabusinesses in areas where cannabis has been legalized.
I have more trouble with the DEA’s assertion of dangers that marijuana may have: They say:
As discussed further in the attached documents, DHHS states that longterm,
regular use of marijuana can lead to physical dependence and withdrawal following
discontinuation as well as psychic addiction or dependence.
The attached HHS document from John O. Agwunobi, Assistant Secretary for Health, says:
…marijuana has a high potential for abuse,
relative abuse potential of a drug substance can include consideration of the drug’s receptor
binding affinity, preclinical pharmacology, reinforcing effects, discriminative stimulus
effects, dependence producing potential, pharmacokinetics and route of administration,
toxicity, assessment of the clinical efficacy-safety database relative to actual abuse, clinical
abuse liability studies, and the public health risks following introduction of the substance to
the general population. It is important to note that abuse may exist independent of a state of
tolerance or physical dependence, because drugs may be abused in doses or in patterns that
do not induce these phenomena. Animal data, human data, and epidemiological data are all
used in determining a substance’s abuse liability. Epidemiological data can also be an
important indicator of actual abuse.Finally, evidence of clandestine production and illicit trafficking of a substance
are also important factors. (emphasis added)
The full report is now on the web. I only skimmed the report but, from what I read the evidence remains as it has been. The DEA can not approve marijuana because it can not define the substance it would be approving. The medical need is served by THC, an approved and available pure drug. The only sensible course of action, given the lack of evidence that marijuana is any more harmful than tobacco or beer, is to change the laws and turn MJ into a regulated product we can all buy from Seagram’s.