Subject: 1988 DEA MARIJUANA RULING
From: [email-masked]
Date: 23 May 1994 23:08:56 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.hemp

The following can be found on pages 56-59 of a 68-page OPINION AND 
RECOMMENDED RULING, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECISION OF 
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE by Judge Francis Young, ruling In The Matter of 
MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING PETITION, Drug Enforcement Administration Docket No. 
86-22, September 6, 1988.
 
VIII.
ACCEPTED SAFETY FOR USE UNDER MEDICAL SUPERVISION
        With respect to whether or not there is "a lack of accepted safety 
for use of [marijuana] under medical supervision", the record shows the 
following facts to be uncontroverted.
Findings of Fact
        1.  Richard J. Gralla, M.D., an oncologist and Professor of Medicine
who was an Agency witness, accepts that in treating cancer patients 
oncologists can use the cannabinoids with safety despite their side effects.
        2.  Andrew T. Weil, M.D., who now practices medicine in Tucson, 
Arizona and is on the faculty of the College of Medicine, University of 
Arizona, was a member of the first team of researchers to perform a Federal 
Government authorized study into the effects of marijuana on human subjects. 
This team made its study in 1968.  These researchers determined that 
marijuana could be safely used under medical supervision.  In the 20 years 
since then Dr. Weil has seen no information that would cause him to 
reconsider that conclusion.  There is no question in his mind but that 
marijuana is safe for use under appropriate medical supervision 
        3.  The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the 
possibility of lethal effects.  Can the drug cause death?
        4.  Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects.  
But marijuana is not such a substance.  There is no record in the extensive 
medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced 
fatality.
        5.  This is a remarkable statement.  First, the record on marijuana 
encompasses 5,000 years of human experience.  Second, marijuana is now used 
daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world.  Estimates suggest 
that from twenty million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit 
illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical 
supervision.  Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily 
high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports 
to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a single death.
        6.  By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, 
causes hundreds of deaths each year.
        7.  Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an 
LD-50.  The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test 
animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity.  A 
number of researchers have attempted to determine marijuanas LD-50 rating 
in test animals, without success.  Simply stated, researchers have been 
unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.
        8.  At present it is estimated that marijuanas LD-50 is around 
1:20,000 or 1:40,000.  In layman terms this means that in order to induce 
death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as 
much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette.  NIDA-supplied 
marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams.  A smoker would 
theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about 
fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.
        9.  In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as 
a result of drug-related toxicity.
        10.  Another common medical way to determine drug safety is called 
the therapeutic ratio.  This ratio defines the difference between a 
therapeutically effective dose and a dose which is capable of inducing 
adverse effects.
        11.  A commonly used over-the-counter product like aspirin has a 
therapeutic ratio of around 1:20.  Two aspirins are the recommended dose for 
adult patients.  Twenty times this dose, forty aspirin, may cause a lethal 
reaction is some patients, and will almost certainly cause gross injury to 
the digestive system, including extensive internal bleeding.
        12.  The therapeutic ratio for prescribed drugs is commonly 1:10 or 
lower.  Valium, a commonly used prescriptive drug, may cause very serious 
biological damage if patients use ten times the recommended (therapeutic) 
dose.
        13.  There are, of course, prescriptive drugs which have much lower 
therapeutic ratios.  Many of the drugs used to treat patients with cancer, 
glaucoma and multiple sclerosis are highly toxic.  The therapeutic ratio of 
some of the drugs used in antineoplastic therapies, for example, are 
regarded as extremely toxic poisons with therapeutic ratios that may fall 
below 1:1.5.  These drugs also have very low LD-50 ratios and can result in 
toxic, even lethal reactions, while being properly employed.
        14.  By contrast, marijuanas therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is 
impossible to quantify because it is so high.
        15.  In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods 
we commonly consume.  For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a 
toxic response.  By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough 
marijuana to induce death.
        16.  Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest 
therapeutically active substances known to man.  By any measure of rational 
analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical 
care.
        DEA Docket No. 86-22, Sept. 6, 1988, pages 56-59.