Washington, DC: Bush’s nominee to head the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Karen Tandy, will target medical marijuana users and their providers in states where such physician-approved use of the drug is legal.
“It will be my duty to see to the uniform enforcement of federal law,” Tandy said during a Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing last week. “I do not believe it would be consistent with that duty for me to support a moratorium on enforcement of this law, or any law, in selected areas of the country.”
Tandy’s predecessor, Asa Hutchinson, oversaw approximately 40 federal raids of medicinal marijuana patients and providers in California, despite a state law permitting the use of physician-approved pot by seriously ill patients. Because federal law makes no exception for the medical use of marijuana, defendants facing federal pot charges may not introduce evidence of its medicinal value or state laws allowing its use.
When asked if she believed marijuana possessed any medicinal value, Tandy responded, “I have no basis for believing that marijuana … has any such benefits.”
Tandy added that she was not familiar with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 1999 report, “Marijuana and Medicine,” which concluded: “The accumulated data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, particularly for symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation. … Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications.” The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report in 1997.
“Ms. Tandy appears to be the perfect appointment for the Bush administration,” NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup said. “She remains willfully ignorant by failing to read the government’s own research on the medical use of marijuana, but nonetheless concludes that marijuana has no legitimate medical value. Clearly, Ms. Tandy will not let science interfere with her personal views or those of the Bush administration with regards to marijuana.”
Despite the objections of some Senate Democrats, the Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly confirmed Tandy’s nomination. The full Senate is expected to vote on Tandy’s nomination imminently.
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup at (202) 483-5500.