Testimony of Dr. David Murray
Chief Scientist, Office of National Drug Control Policy
Before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism,
and Homeland Security
“Hearing on the Drug Enforcement Administration's Regulation of Medicine”
July 12, 2007
What is Wrong With Permitting the Use of Smoked Marijuana for Medical Purposes?
In order to provide the appropriate perspective regarding medical marijuana, we should examine our Nation's painful lessons from the past. At the beginning of the last century, America faced a serious medicinal challenge. Fly-by-night swindlers traveled from town to town hawking miracle medicines that claimed cures for everything from baldness to life-threatening diseases. While the tonics rarely cured what their proponents claimed, consumers often did report feeling better after taking them. In reality, people felt better because these “medicines” most often contained large amounts of alcohol, opium, or other “feel-good” agents. This chaotic medicinal marketplace, where legitimate medicine competed with unproven and often dangerous snake oils, compelled the U.S. Congress over 100 years ago to create the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for approving, regulating, and verifying the effectiveness and safety of medicines. More than making people “feel better,” a core element of FDA's public health mission is to verify and ensure that medicines fulfill two critical principles: safety, and effectiveness in treating medical conditions.
The FDA's process for approving medicine has contributed to the United States having the world's finest medical system. In the century that the FDA has been approving medicines, it has shown an open willingness to evaluate and approve potentially harmful and addictive substances if it can be proven that the benefits of these substances provide outweigh the risks. For instance, medicinal derivatives of the opium poppy and the coca plant clearly demonstrate this principle. But smoked marijuana has never passed this test. Simply stated, the FDA has not found compelling scientific evidence that smoking marijuana relieves the myriad of ailments that its proponents claim. Moreover, the medical community prescribes drugs that are safer and easier to administer and that have been scientifically proven to do a far more effective job at treating the ailments that marijuana proponents claim are relieved by smoking marijuana.
Funded by millions from those who want to legalize marijuana outright, marijuana lobbyists have now been deployed to Capitol Hill and to States across the Nation to employ their favored tactic of using Americans' natural compassion for the sick to garner support for a far different agenda. These modern-day snake oil proponents cite testimonials—not science—that smoked marijuana helps patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, and other painful diseases “feel better.” Unfortunately for America's sick, the same scenario our Nation dealt with a century ago has returned, and a number of states have passed voter referenda or legislative actions making smoked marijuana available for a variety of medical conditions upon a doctor's recommendation under state law.
On April 20th, 2006, the Department of Health and Human Services (which includes FDA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse), the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy issued an advisory reinforcing the fact that no sound scientific studies have supported medical use of smoked marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data support the safety or efficacy of smoked marijuana for general medical use. Additionally, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has concluded that smoking marijuana is not recommended for any long-term medical use, and a subsequent IOM report (March 1, 1999) declared that, “marijuana is not modern medicine.” These statements add to a substantial list of legitimate public health organizations that have already spoken out on this issue, including the American Medical Association, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society – all of which do not support the smoked form of marijuana as medicine.
Last Updated: July 16, 2007
