Marijuana is listed in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the most restrictive schedule. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which administers the CSA, continues to support that placement [despite all logic or reason] and FDA concurred because [it believes] marijuana met the three criteria for placement in Schedule I under 21 U.S.C. 812(b)(1) (e.g., marijuana has a high potential for abuse [like any other food or drug], has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States [because we refuse to recognize it], and has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision [despite the fact that it is the one substance that is medically impossible to overdose on and there is no historical record of such an occurrence.] ). Furthermore, there is currently sound evidence that smoked marijuana [like cigarettes] is harmful [and legalizing it would only allow it to be consumed in a less harmful form]. A past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), 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. [It didn't provide any reason to ban it as a substance either, yet we'll just continue to pursue that route.] There are alternative FDA-approved medications [that are available at a much greater cost from established pharmaceutical companies] in existence for treatment of many of the proposed uses of smoked marijuana.

FDA is the sole Federal agency [sanctioned by God from above] that approves drug products as safe and effective for intended indications. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act requires that new drugs be shown to be safe and effective for their intended use before being marketed in this country [regardless of whether we can show any harmful effects or not]. FDA's drug approval process requires well-controlled clinical trials that provide the necessary scientific data upon which FDA makes its approval and labeling decisions. [Thousands of years of historical evidence is completely irrelevant.] If a drug product is to be marketed, disciplined, systematic, scientifically conducted trials are the best means to obtain data to ensure that drug is safe and effective when used as indicated. Efforts that seek to bypass the FDA drug approval process would not serve the interests of public health because they might expose patients to unsafe and ineffective [or unmarketable] drug products. FDA has not approved smoked marijuana for any condition or disease indication [and we're the FDA so we say so].

A growing 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 [because they are somehow under the mistaken impression that that's how this country works]. These measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective under the standards of the FD&C Act. Accordingly, FDA, as the federal agency responsible for reviewing the safety and efficacy of drugs, DEA as the federal agency charged with enforcing the CSA, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, as the federal coordinator of drug control policy, do not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes. [since recreation and/or piece of mind are not supported as "medical purposes"]

[Do what we say, never mind how little sense it makes.]

[Yours in the Fuehrer,]

[Colonel Klink]

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