FDA Opposition to Medical Marijuana Fuels Controversy

The announcement by U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials late Thursday that the agency does not support the medicinal use of marijuana quickly re-ignited controversy from both sides of the debate.

In a statement, the FDA said it, along with other agencies in the Health and Human Services Department, has 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."

The FDA's statement contradicts a 1999 review by experts at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a division of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which found marijuana to be "moderately well-suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting."

The federal government "loves to ignore our report," Dr. John Benson, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and co-chairman of the Institute of Medicine committee that examined the research into marijuana's effects, told The New York Times. "They would rather it never happened.