FDA Rejects Marijuana for Medical Uses.
Hmm…didn’t exactly notice many clinical trials on this one, eh. Funny that….
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So stuart, how come it’s OK for doctors in Holland, Canada, or the UK (or San francisco, the med society of which HAS backed MM) to prescribe? Their different standard of care means that the condition of wasting, glaucoma nausea, etc changes at the border.
The clinical trials that got Sativa through the UK system apparently aren’t good enough for you?
If you dont think this ruling was a political demand from the far right wingnuts, you really havent been paying attention!
C’mon, people. Politicized or not, the FDA said what needed to be said.
Any physician certifying in writing that benefits of marijuana use might outweigh the health risks to the patient is taking an enormous liability risk. There is at this time absolutely no trustworthy evidence supporting the use of smoked marijuana, while there is a tremendous literature detailing the health risks. While there are anecdotal reports detailing the potential value of THC in a variety of medical conditions, no double-blind placebo-controlled longitudinal studies (the gold standard for medical research) have ever been conducted, no substantive research into various delivery systems (e.g. oral, smoked, etc.) has been conducted, and no long-term research on risk:benefit ratios has been written.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association have no policies supporting any medical value in the use of smoked marijuana.
Recommending smoked marijuana to patients is not incorporated into any accepted medical guideline, nor does it fall within standard of care (for the community or the nation). Patients who have any negative outcome as a result of following their physicians’ instructions or recommendations and who seek a malpractice action against their physician as a result would have no difficulty obtaining nationally known addiction medicine experts to testify on their behalf.
I remain horrified to hear of physicians willing to sign off on their patients breaking federal law and inhaling a known carcinogen with hundreds of well documented negative effects.
I agree that the FDA is nothing more than a political rubber stamp for Bush/Rove cronies. If you look at most of the agencies now they are not for citizens but for business contributors. I have absolutely no confidence or trust in FDA. FEMA has become nothing more than cash disbursement agency ….. and so on and so on.
From the HealthBehaviorBlog of the Center for the Advancement of Health:
Just Say Dough
The CIA used to be the government’s rogue agency. Today the title must be passed to FDA. Once again, in the face of strong evidence to the contrary, this most political of all administration science agencies has declared day to be night — this time that marijuana has no potential to relieve pain in cancer and AIDS patients.
But isn’t this the same FDA that so far is resisting misguided calls from women demanding approval of custom-made hormonal compounds? Yes, it is. Because there is no evidence that they work. At least that’s what the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has declared. And who doesn’t trust her gynecologist?
But if you go to the ACOG Web site, it will take five clicks to unearth the fact that Wyeth, the maker of FDA-approved hormone replacement pills, is among 49 drug and device makers who are “Friends of ACOG” – for a mere $3,000 a year. This is not Abramoff-class money, but it is enough to raise questions and suggest unpleasant answers.