Appellate decision puts the ball in your court
January 22nd, 2013Posted by Don Duncan
The US appellate court in Washington, DC, denied our appeal to reschedule cannabis under federal law today, agreeing with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) position that “adequate and well-controlled studies” on the medical efficacy of medical cannabis do not exist. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) strongly disagrees with the court’s opinion. Our briefs referenced two hundred peer-reviewed scientific studies proving the medical value of cannabis.
The Obama Administration keeps changing the definition of medical efficacy. Politics have trumped medical science on this issue. ASA can point to a research approval process for medical cannabis, controlled by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is unique, overly rigorous, and hinders meaningful therapeutic research. ASA argued in its appeal brief that the DEA has no “license to apply different criteria to marijuana than to other drugs, ignore critical scientific data, misrepresent social science research, or rely upon unsubstantiated assumptions, as the DEA has done in this case.”
The decision in Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration is disappointing, but not the end of the road. ASA will seek an en banc review, asking all nine judges to review the two-to-one decision by a three-judge panel that heard oral arguments in October of last year. If the full nine-member panel does not reverse the decision, we will ask the US Supreme Court to hear the case. In the meantime, the ball is in your court. We must now turn to Congress to do what the courts have not. ASA is calling on patients and advocates to join us in Washington, DC, February 22-25, for our national conference and historic citizen lobby day.
The conference, called “Bridging the Gap between Public and Policy,” is a chance to network with other activists from around the country, attend panels and workshops to improve your skills and increase your knowledge, and to engage in direct citizen-lobbying efforts in the halls of Congress on Monday, February 25. Our goals are to bring medical cannabis into the mainstream political conversation in the nation’s capitol and to send an army of motivated and empowered activists back home to work at the local and state level. The courts may not be ready to acknowledge that cannabis is medicine – but we are going to be sure Congress and the Obama Administration get the message. Do not miss your chance to be a part of it. Register for the conference today!
ASA’s national conference is sponsored by the International Association of Cannabinoid Medicines, Patients Out of Time, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, the American Herbal Products Association, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Scholarships are made possible by a generous matching funds contribution from Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap.
See you in Washington, DC!
January 22nd, 2013 at 7:58 pm
I sat in that courtroom back at the hearing. I’ve waited anxiously for the ruling since. Now here I sit, disappointed, and completely lacking whatever faith I may have had for our legal system. Today is a sad day for science and truth.
I think you guys started this fight strongly, and I hope you follow through with tenfold as much vehemence in your appeals. After today, I can no longer proclaim any semblance of faith in our system of law. After today, and after this ruling, I am an “outlaw”, as in 16 Am Jur 2d, Sec 177 late 2d, Sec 256, “No one Is bound to obey an unconstitutional law…” and this ruling, along with the laws it helps to uphold, are all unconstitutional in my view.
January 23rd, 2013 at 4:27 am
It’s indeed a bit of a kick in the head.
January 23rd, 2013 at 3:57 pm
The DEA is an evil genius. By saying more research is needed, it lets NIDA restrict the flow of research, until Sativex gets approval from the FDA. Once it gets approval, the DEA will change its tune and say that removing marijuana from schedule I is no longer necessary, since we have Sativex. That way, drug companies can profit at every transaction, instead of the end user growing his own, or supporting local business via dispensaries.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:31 am
I would think the study done by CMRI on smoked marijuana as a medicine would have met DEA requirements since it was FDA clinical testing done with DEA/NIDA oversight and using government grown and furnished marijuana.
One has to wonder what the testing would have shown if they had used one of the medical strains.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:56 am
I am so disheartened right now. I had high hopes (no pun intended) for this hearing and outcome. The DEA and the FDA have way too much power. It seems to me the the parties in power want to pass the buck, even in the face of FACTS. I believe it is going to take a ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States to make the FDA and DEA back down and open up the avenue of proper research, and subsequently change the status on the Schedule of Narcotics. The autonomy that these two organizations enjoy needs to be dismantled.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
I believe it has to do with saving face, and of coarse their in- ability to tax, or charge fee. If they had their hand in the cookie jar, i would suspect this would turn the table. I believe they cannot place a monetary value on this, simply due to acknowledging this whole time/ multiple millions lost in a probation state of mind. With tax/ fee monies generated from this Medicine, it could easily support any system, State,and educate.
Then who would be to blame for YEARS, of multiple millions of lost dollars and life’s impacted by wrongful legalities implied for Medicine use. They could not deal with the turn over rate, and easier to keep people like mushrooms. Keep them in the dark, and feed them full of manure….
January 24th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
A second thought,,any chance of requiring the DEA to apply the same science to their drug harm studies,,or have they locked that down too?
January 26th, 2013 at 7:30 am
They must beleive that doctor and university who study the medical effects of marijuana are brainless.The sad part is the government is the only place these studys can obtain cannabis to test,AND THEY WILL NOT GIVE IT TO THEM.You can think anyway you want about this subject.The Main fight gainst Medical Marijuana is coming from the number ONE dollar spending lobbyist group in Washington(Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $2,502,889,092) The politicians are not about to give up their back pockets being filled by this industry.As soon as the said industry figurers out how to control the cannabis plants proven health benefits in a form they can sell it for (of course for a outrageous price) then the politicians will give the go a head!!!
January 31st, 2013 at 8:21 am
Yes I agreed dude (claygooding) your statement is right “DEA to apply the same science to their drug harm studies”.
February 2nd, 2013 at 4:45 pm
Dear Sir:
I did not see your name. I was waiting a long time for this decision. And I was hopeful that Cannabis would be recognized for its medical benefits. I was saddened and very disappointed at this news. I am a medical user of it. I got a lot of information on it from reading “The Pot Book.” It has been used for over 5,000 years for medical treatment. It is mentioned in the Bible as part of an anointing oil in Exodus 30:23 as Calamus which is a mistranslation starting with the Septuagint. Jesus never baptized his disciples. They were anointed with this oil. The word Christ means the anointed one. He told his disciples to use it to heal people. It appears in a number of places in the Bible. The Hindus and Chinese worship it because it prolongs life.
In Daniel chapter nine is a prophecy of from the going forth of the rebuilding of the holy temple, 457 BC 70 week of years take place until an anointed one shall be cut off. This would be 33 AD.
I hope your appeal of this decision before nine judges will be successful. Cannabis is not harmful at all. I have smoked for a number of years. No recorded death has ever occurred and no medical afflictions have occurred either. Good luck to you. I will be watching the news very carefully everyday. Good luck to you.
March 5th, 2013 at 10:50 pm
I’m 46 yrs old i’ve been smoking for about 34 yr’s I started working at 15 full time, hard blue collar work. I had 6 children and still married after 23 yr’s. Worked like a mule, in 2004 I had a pain shoot all the way through my waist to my lower back.The worst pain I’ve ever felt it was diagnosed as Digenitive Disc Diease, the doctor said the M.R.I. showed I had 3 blown disc, and my cervical is reverse , I have numbness in my left side of back and bone spures in my neck,shortly after this I developed severe pain all over my body in my musles to the core of my bones. I started having musle spasms, nerves jumping all over. The doctor’s diagose was Fibromyalga, new one to me I knew nothing. Now 9 yr’s later I have 10 blown disc, full blown fibromyalga, bone spurs on my cervical spine, and lumbar spine, siatica in both legs, numbness in both feet, hands , arms, back and butt. Coronic fatige sindrome, pintched nerves from the base of my skull to the tip of my tail bone.Pain is so painful there’s no sleep.Pain pills don’t kill the pain. The ONLY thing that gives me a break with ALL of these disabling dieases and real pain relief is when i use cannabis, it does’nt last for ever but I really get a break in severe pain. I get sleep, good sleep. The worst and only bad thing about it is I could loss my freedom, my safe loving family, my everything that i’ve worked all my life for and love. ITS NOT LEGAL TO LIVE IN FEAR, TO LOSS MY LIFE FOR A ALL NATURAL PAIN AND DIEASE KILLING PLANT IS “CRAZY” is’nt it !? IT CANT HURT YOU, BELEAVE ME I HAVE 34 YEARS OF TESTING. I’m old enough to drink respons. I dont drink and drive and I dont smoke and drive. JUST PLEASE MAKE IT MEDICALLY NEEDED, THANK YOU.