Veterans with PTSD denied legal medical mj in CO

[RainDog]

12. Michael Krawitz, a U.S. Air Force veteran, sued the govt to reschedule marijuana

Via Americans for Safe Access. The hearing was in Oct. 2012... it took NINE YEARS for the DEA to respond to the petition. When faced with a lawsuit for "unreasonable delay" the DEA denied the petition to reschedule based upon lack of medical proof - which they create by colluding with the NIDA to refuse studies that would indicate medical benefit. Law enforcement agencies should have no say in medical studies - but in the US, regarding marijuana - it's the DEA that is hurting people who could benefit from medical marijuana - especially veterans.

ASA filed its lawsuit in January 2012, challenging the July 2011 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) denial of the CRC petition, which was filed in 2002. The DEA is the final arbiter on petitions to reclassify controlled substances, but other agencies are also involved in the review process. Patient advocates claim that marijuana is treated unlike any other controlled substance in that rescheduling petitions are encumbered by politics and therapeutic research is subjected to a unique and overly rigorous approval process.

The announcement of oral arguments comes just weeks after a study was published in The Open Neurology Journal by Dr. Igor Grant one of the leading U.S. medical marijuana researchers, claiming that marijuana's Schedule I classification is "not tenable." Dr. Grant and his fellow researchers concluded it was "not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking." The study urged additional research, and stated that marijuana's federal classification and its political controversy are "obstacles to medical progress in this area." Marijuana's classification as a Schedule I substance (along with heroin) is based on the federal government's position that it has "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States."

http://www.safeaccessnow.org/medical_marijuana_patients_get_their_day_in_federal_court_with_the_obama_administration

Kravitz, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, suffered an auto accident in 1984 which left him totally and permanently disabled. Veterans Affairs put him on a regimen of potent pain pills with terrible side effects, and when he began using cannabis to help manage his pain and reduce his pill intake, the VA punished him by pulling him from the pain management program. ASA alleges that a rescheduling of cannabis out of Schedule I would open the door for the VA to reform its policies, so that Kravitz will no longer have to choose between legal treatments and tolerable ones.

The petition to reschedule was denied.

The silver lining in the government's refusal to recognize marijuana's medical value was that for the first time in 20 years, the issue of marijuana's classification was again brought into federal court. The D.C. Circuit, where ASA v. DEA was heard, granted the plaintiffs standing to bring such an appeal but unfortunately denied the case on its merits. In so doing, the D.C. Circuit established a brand new precedent, requiring petitioners to obtain evidence from Phase II and III clinical trials to prove medical efficacy, a ruling that conflicts with the First Circuit in Grinspoon v. DEA, 828 F.2d 881 (1st Cir. 1987). The First Circuit held that the DEA cannot treat a lack of FDA marketing approval as conclusive evidence that a substance has no "currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." The Grinspoon Court also held that for some drugs (like smoked marijuana):

(T)here is no economic or other incentive to seek interstate marketing approval...because (they) cannot be patented and exploited commercially.

This week's refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on marijuana's federal reclassification comes less than three months after a writ of certiorari was filed with the High Court seeking review. The appeal was not only based on a clear conflict with Grinspoon, but also a failure by the D.C. Circuit to review marijuana's abuse potential, which is currently considered as harmful as heroin and PCP and even more harmful than methamphetamine, cocaine and opium.

The problem with marijuana in this nation is really a problem with the DEA. They are the problem. They are not representing the best interests of Americans.