Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), an historic foe of drug policy reform, has introduced a bill calling for federal research into the benefits of medical marijuana. His bill, the Safe and Effective Drug Act, directs the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to analyze scientific information about marijuana's safety and efficacy -- and directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to distribute the information collected by NIDA.

Though the bill's stated purpose, to analyze whether smoking marijuana has scientific medical benefit, is a good one, the Drug Policy Alliance is concerned that Souder is trying to set the study's outcome before it even begins -- stacking the government's deck against medical marijuana even more.

NIDA is an agency controlled by the Bush administration, which has an anti-marijuana bias. By contrast, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is a neutral scientific agency that has already researched the benefits of medical marijuana. In 1999, IOM issued the following conclusion:

"For patients such as those with AIDS or who are undergoing chemotherapy, and who suffer simultaneously from severe pain, nausea and appetite loss, cannabinoid drugs might offer broad-spectrum relief not found in any other single medication."

Research into the clinical benefits of marijuana does exist in Great Britain, Israel and the United States, but U.S. studies have been extremely limited by NIDA's monopoly on producing marijuana for testing. The federal government has for years been involved in supressing evidence about marijuana's benefits and blocking access to the drug for research purposes.

"This bill sounds like a great idea, but we're troubled by the specifics," said Alliance legislative analyst Caren Woodson. "The bill ignores the many people who use marijuana for medical purposes by means other than smoking, and the many studies around the world showing that cannabis is medicine. We hope any serious investigation of the benefits of marijuana would include all the available evidence instead of picking and choosing to meet a foregone conclusion."

This story was provided by the Drug Policy Alliance.