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  Msg#: 5085                                         Date: 02-0194  12:50
  From: Doug Keenan                                  Read: Yes    Replied: No
    To: All                                          Mark:
  Subj: DEA DANCES

FROM: 1:374/14
TYPE: Security violation
AREA:AEN_NEWS
Crossposted 1/24/94 NORML echo: Carl Olsen, Iowa NORML coordinator...

   For several years now, NORML has been fighting with the DEA
about whether marijuana has a medical use.  Schedule I of the
Controlled Substances Act, in which marijuana was placed by
Congress in 1970, contains only substances which have no
medical use.  NORML has been asking the DEA to move
marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II, where Congress
placed cocaine or morphine.  The last word from the DEA is
that marijuana is not a medicine, because it is not a
chemical compound which can be reproduced in standardized
dosages.  The DEA gets this definition from the FDA, which
has never approved any plant for medical use.
     The Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics and the Drug Policy
Foundation have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the DEA's
decision.  However, at the 23rd Annual NORML Conference on
November 21, 1993, Richard Cowan, executive director of
NORML, announced that NORML was removing itself from the
litigation.  Cowan said that NORML could no longer argue
that marijuana belongs in Schedule II.
     The truth of the matter is that marijuana doesn't belong in
any of the schedules, because marijuana is not a drug and cannot be
duplicated in a test tube.  However, marijuana does contain
a useful drug, delta-9-THC.  In 1985, the FDA approved
delta-9-THC for use in the treatment of nausea and vomiting
associated with cancer chemotherapy, and, in 1986, the DEA
responded by moving delta-9-THC from Schedule I to Schedule
II.  In 1991, the U.N. Narcotics Control Board transferred
delta-9-THC from Schedule I to Schedule II of the
international Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and,
in 1992, the FDA approved delta-9-THC for use in the
treatment of the wasting syndrome associated with AIDS.
     So, what's the point?  It sounds like the FDA and the DEA
have admitted that marijuana is good for something, even if only
as a source of delta-9-THC.  Well, think again.  The DEA says
that delta-9-THC is only an FDA approved medicine when it's
made synthetically, mixed with sesame oil and encapsulated
in soft gelatin capsules, but not when it's found in the
marijuana plant.  Cocaine comes from coca leaves which are
in Schedule II, and morphine comes from opium poppy straw
which is in Schedule II.  If the DEA were to admit that
delta-9-THC comes from marijuana, then marijuana would be
transferred from Schedule I to Schedule II.  Why doesn't
the DEA want this to happen?  Because the DEA doesn't want
to admit that marijuana is good for ANYTHING!
     The FDA says that cocaine is cocaine, whether it's made
synthetically or extracted from coca leaves, and morphine is
morphine whether it's made synthetically or extracted from
opium poppy straw, but delta-9-THC is in Schedule II if it's
made synthetically and in Schedule I if it comes from the
marijuana plant.  Do you see something sinister going on
here?  I do, and I've asked the DEA to do something about
it, but the DEA has refused to respond.  Fortunately, on
December 9, 1993, the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the DEA
to answer me in Carl Eric Olsen  v. DEA, No. 93-1109 (D.C.
Cir. December 9, 1993).
     I'll let you know what happens.

... The OFFICIAL tagline of the 1996 Olympics!
-!- Blue Wave/QBBS v2.12 [NR]

 ! Origin: Gun Control = Criminals & Police vs. the Unarmed. (1:231/110.0)

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