Federal Medical Marijuana Program Marks 30th Anniversary

Federal Medical Marijuana Program Marks 30th Anniversary on May 10

Federal Medical Marijuana Program Marks 30th Anniversary on May 10

WASHINGTON, D.C. â?? A little-known federal government program that supplies medical marijuana to a handful of patients will mark its 30th anniversary on May 10.

The federal medical marijuana program -- referred to as a Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program -- resulted from a lawsuit filed by glaucoma patient Robert Randall, who successfully showed that his use of marijuana was a medical necessity.

The program slowly grew for over a dozen years. In the wake of a flood of new applications from patients battling AIDS -- who found that marijuana boosted their appetites and relieved the nausea often caused by anti-HIV drugs -- the George H.W. Bush administration closed it to new applicants in March 1992, but continued supplying federal marijuana to those already receiving it. Four of those patients survive today.

"Most Americans would be shocked to know that the federal government supplies medical marijuana to patients while claiming that marijuana is a harmful drug with no medical value," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "If federal officials believe their own statements, they're knowingly poisoning four innocent people, but in fact they know better. The four remaining patients in the federal program have benefited from their medical marijuana use, groups like the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association have said that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine and, as a result, we must change the federal laws that prohibit medical marijuana."

Officially, the Compassionate IND is a research program. Participants were required to sign a consent document calling the program a "study." Yet the federal government has never studied the patients in the "study." In fact, the only study ever published of these patients was privately financed and conducted.

"May 10 marks the 30th anniversary of federal hypocrisy and dishonesty about medical marijuana," Kampia said. "When future historians see how much effort our government made to avoid learning that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine, they'll shake their heads in disbelief."

With more than 23,000 members and 180,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit MPP Homepage.

You know, this alone should stir up hell if it made news headlines everywhere. I mean, seriously. This STINKS with hypocrisy.

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Originally Posted by Unknownfigure

You know, this alone should stir up hell if it made news headlines everywhere. I mean, seriously. This STINKS with hypocrisy.

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i petition everyone prints out copies of this article and staples them to telephone poles all over their areas!

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Originally Posted by Stoner Shadow Wolf

i petition everyone prints out copies of this article and staples them to telephone poles all over their areas!

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I plan to do something similar. I will add this even to a list of other marijuana-related events thats proves the government has been wrong all these years, and create a brief flyer when the next event occurs and publish it in public city forums and telephone poles across my city.


The first step is to educate our people.

The MPP makes it all the more convenient to do so...

^ showtime shows the documentary "in pot we trust" that details this program all the time, its not really a secret to those in the medical marijuana community. they follow the dude around who sued them, he gets a tin of 300 joints every month or something shipped from the only legal research grow in America, umiss, that has been frozen for ten years. the weed he is smoking tonight was grown and rolled in 1998.

in the documentary they show him smoking while driving to work. he has a crazy joint tissue cancer that would literally have killed him if he hadn't smoked weed since he got it. weed is literally the only medicine that helps this particular condition of his, and thats why he won the suit, seems back in 1981 federal judges actually had some compassion.

super ultra secret: various non-medical states have programs similar to the federal one, and were enacted around the same time for similar reasons but guess what? THEY STILL TAKE APPLICANTS!!!! they all require passing an approval process from the state, so only people who NEED marijuana for a SERIOUS condition will be approved, and the weed youll smoke will be given to you by a single doctor, usually the doctor that is the head of the states program, and the weed will also be inconsistent and possibly contaminated or grown improperly because most states stipulated that the weed can only come from drug busts.

bump^ :bump2:

so medical marijuana is federally legal !!

then how has it been illegally placed at schedule 1 on the csa;
Bambooweb: Controlled Substances Act

Schedule I drugs Schedule I drugs are defined as those considered to have high potential for abuse, with no recognized medical use in treatment in the US. It includes, among others, 5-MeO-DIPT; GHB; MDA; MDMA/Ecstasy; heroin; ibogaine; LSD; marijuana; mescaline; peyote; psilocybin:

GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) has been used as a general anestetic with minimal side-effects and controlled action but a limited safe dosage range. It was placed in Schedule I in March 2000 after widespread recreational use.
Ibogaine has potential medical uses in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction and is regarded as an experimental, rather than illegal, drug in some countries.
Strict application of the "no recognized medical use" requirement would exclude marijuana from this schedule and place it in Schedule II, since it does have recognised medical uses in the US, notably to control nausea in those undergoing chemotherapy; see medical marijuana. In 1988, the DEA's own adminstrative law judge, Francis Young, proposed moving marijuana into Schedule II, on the basis that marijuana is "one of the safest therapeutically active drugs known to man" 1 and that a respectible minority of physicians supported its medical uses. The DEA refused to honor Young's ruling, and subsequent petitions to reschedule have been denied.
MDMA continues to be used medically, notably in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The FDA approved this PTSD use in 2001. Medical recommendations were that because of its medical use it be placed in Schedule III, not Schedule I.
Psilocybin was studied in an FDA-approved study for its potential use in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Rohypnol (Flunitrazepam) was placed in Schedule IV in 1984, but the DEA is considering moving it into Schedule I because of widespread non-medical use, and the fact that Rohypnol is not approved by the FDA. It is best known as a date-rape drug but is also fairly widely used in recreational ways.
The medical uses illustrate the dominance of recreational use as the primary qualifying factor for Schedule I, even when there are medical uses which in theory disqualify them from being eligible for Schedule I.