Michael Hess

BBSNews 2002

DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson testified to the US Senate on April 11th, 2002 that “The Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Surgeon General have recently re-affirmed the fact that there is no scientifically valid data to support the medical use of marijuana in the United States.” That’s funny. The FDA approved Delta-9-THC, the active and most demonized ingredient in marijuana, as Marinol in 1986. It is so safe that the DEA down scheduled Marinol in 1999. I also wonder how Hutchinson missed the landmark study funded and commissioned by former ONDCP McCzar Barry McCaffrey? The Institute of Medicine released the results of the study Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base in 1999 by the National Academy of Sciences. One main conclusion, "scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, primarily THC, for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation; smoked marijuana, however, is a crude THC delivery system that also delivers harmful substances." Apparently all the science also missed the Supreme Court in UNITED STATES v. OAKLAND CANNABIS BUYERS’ COOPERATIVE et al..

Teaching children that it is ok for the federal government to lie is wrong. But it gets even worse. Now women legislators are being dragged into this failed War on Some Drugs by the hype about ecstasy or MDMA.

"The Drug Enforcement Administration has formed a partnership with the National Foundation of Women Legislators to increase nationwide awareness of the dangers of club drugs such as Ecstasy," said DEA chief Asa Hutchinson in the Washington Times. Director Hutchinson goes on to say in his speech "Our kids are being told that club drugs like Ecstasy are safe. But we know better. These drugs are deadly. And we must work together to educate parents and youth about the deadly danger of club drugs that casts a dark shadow over this summer’s activities." He outlines what he calls “facts” about ecstasy. He claims there is some entity out in the land which is telling teens and adults that ecstasy is “safe.” Please tell us what entity that is Director Hutchinson? Could it be the DEA? I know of no reform organization which is taken seriously by the public which espouses that ecstasy is “safe.” On the contrary, while Hutchinson clearly disdains harm reduction advice and says so in his speech, he mistakenly tries to paint the picture that harm reduction organizations are part of the problem. I’ve always found the opposite to be true. So I bebop over to DanceSafe, a well known harm reduction organization whose sole purpose is to try and make the “rave scene” as safe as possible. And what do I find? Pointers to the truth about what really happened to a young girl on her prom night that Hutchison cynically tries to use as a reason against harm reduction in his speech to women who should damn well know better. In fact, the articles about Cathy Isford in the LA Times show clearly that Hutchinson’s and others rabid hatred of harm reduction are likely responsible for her death. According to the earliest LA Times report on May 22nd, Cathy’s sister Star said “[Cathy] took two pills, mixing them with wine, beer and rum. She began complaining of a terrible headache about an hour later. About 4 a.m., she collapsed in her boyfriend’s arms, Star Isford said, and her last words were, “My head hurts really bad.”