Jane Kelley wrote in a message to Alex Vasauskas:
 JK> committing suicide and using marijuana and
 JK> other such drugs is one way of doing just that.....slowly.
Wrong again Jane:
                   UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 
                      Drug Enforcement Administration 
_______________________________________ 
                                       ) 
  In The Matter Of                     ) 
                                       )              Docket No. 86-22 
     MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING PETITION   ) 
_______________________________________) 
                OPINION AND RECOMMENDED RULING, FINDINGS OF 
                  FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECISION OF 
                       Administrative LAW JUDGE. 
FRANCIS L. YOUNG, Administrative Law Judge 
DATED: SEP 6  1988 
[...]
            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.
                                 - 56 -
          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 
marijuana's 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 marijuana's 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.
                                 - 57 -
         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 aspirins, may cause a 
lethal reaction in 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 
around 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, marijuana's 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
                                 - 58 -
active substances known to man.  
[...]
--- 
---------------