Pubdate: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2011 Eric A. Voth Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Eric A. Voth Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n709/a04.html Sunday Dialogue WHEN MARIJUANA IS USED AS MEDICINE. I congratulate Mr. Evans for his incisive and insightful discussion of the medical marijuana issue. Our procedures for assuring safety and efficacy through Food and Drug Administration approval have been hijacked by marijuana advocates. They are driving a process of medicine by popular vote - a terrible precedent for consumer protection. If marijuana were named Substance X to disconnect it from all the emotions, its use would be associated with exposure to numerous impurities, significant addiction, psychotic episodes and dose instability. The medical community and the public would reject it out of hand. Lobbying by the marijuana culture has resulted in misguided and misinformed public acceptance. We need to continue to identify and isolate or synthesize the substances within marijuana that have beneficial uses, and bring those to the public with careful research - not succumb to those who ultimately seek to legalize the smoked drug. ERIC A. VOTH Chairman The Institute on Global Drug Policy St. Petersburg, Fla., Dec. 14, 2011 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom