The two items here create another instance of cyber-synchronicity, in which juxtaposing  two stories that appear on the same day gives added meaning to them both.

In the first, The Inquirer tells its readers that a Federal judge wants the government to explain why only eight people can have medical marijuana. In the second, Al Gore comes out in favor of better labeling for over-the-counter-drugs, virtually all of which are more dangerous than marijuana. Only on the Internet…)

See
Major Disaster For Marijuana Prohibition!
Federal Court To Allow Class Action To Proceed On Equal Protection Question:
Why do eight people have the right to receive medical marijuana from the government,
but no one else does?
and links

JUDGE DECLINES TO DISMISS MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWSUIT

From The Philadelphia Inquirer
Inquirer.opinion@phillynews.com
http://www.phillynews.com/
March 11, 1999

Plaintiffs seeking to legalize the drug for medicinal use will get their day in federal court.

By Joseph A. Slobodzian INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

"The answer must come from facts, not the abstractions and dogma presently in the record," wrote U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz in a 25-page opinion and order.

Katz's ruling keeps alive a class-action lawsuit that many legal experts assumed had no chance of success when it was filed in July.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Steel said lawyers had not had the chance to review Katz's ruling and could not comment. "Our basic position is that marijuana remains an illegal drug," Steel said.

Lawrence Elliott Hirsch, the Center City lawyer who filed the suit on behalf of 165 people nationwide, praised the opinion as a "tremendous job of analysis. . . . Whatever the ultimate outcome, the judge has done an excellent job of framing the issues."
See www.fairlaw.org

Some medical researchers have said marijuana seems to help in treating glaucoma and combating the nausea caused by drugs used in treating cancer and AIDS. Although a synthetic form of a key compound of marijuana has been marketed as the prescription drug Marinol, the lawsuit contends it is not as effective as smoking the herb itself.

In some ways, Katz handed victories to both sides. He denied Hirsch's motion for a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, and granted the government's motion to dismiss Hirsch's most novel claim -- that, unlike the 18th Amendment's ill-fated ban on alcohol except for medicinal use, Congress prohibited marijuana improperly in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

Katz wrote that numerous federal courts have upheld the 1970 law.

But the judge said it was premature to dismiss the plaintiffs' claim that they were being denied equal protection of the law.

Despite the longstanding prohibition of marijuana, the lawsuit contends, the government in 1978 settled a federal lawsuit by implementing a limited "compassionate use" program in which as many as 300 government-grown marijuana cigarettes a month were provided to people found to have serious medical conditions that benefited from marijuana use.

About half of the 14 people admitted into the program -- it was closed to new participants in 1992 -- still receive the drug. "The court cannot say," Katz wrote, "that the government's decision to give marijuana to several people who are ill and the government's refusal to give it to the plaintiffs who are also ill is rational as a matter of law when plaintiffs have not had the opportunity to try to prove otherwise."

March 11 1999
By Lisa Richwine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal officials announced new rules Thursday to help prevent people getting sick from the medications they take—requiring over-the-counter drugs for coughs, colds and other ailments to carry labels that are easier to read and understand.

The Food and Drug Administration regulations aim to cut misuse of the drugs, which cause 170,000 hospitalizations in the United States each year, the officials said.

Elderly people often have trouble reading the small type on current drug packaging, the officials said. Children also are at risk because pediatric dosing information is frequently buried among other instructions.

"This is going to have a big impact on the Americans who use these over-the-counter drugs," Vice President Al Gore said. "These drug labels will be going from indecipherable to easy to read."

Gore unveiled the plans at a White House ceremony with FDA Commissioner Jane Henney, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and three pharmacists. The vice president, who is gearing up for a run for the presidency, pulled out his glasses to demonstrate the trouble with current labels.

"It’s a strain on your eyes, and you have to really look hard to get the information you’re looking for," Gore said.

Americans purchase five billion over-the-counter products each year, and are four times as likely to seek that type of medication rather than seeing their doctors for a prescription, Gore said.

The new regulations, which apply to more than 100,000 drugs and cosmetics, set minimum standards for type size on most labels.

Manufacturers will be required to present the ingredients of a drug, as well as the correct dosage, warnings and associated risks.

The changes also set up a standardized format that would list ingredients in the same place on each product, as well as provide an explanation of what symptoms they treat.

In addition to improving safety, the new rules will enable consumers to make health care choices more quickly, Henney said.

Some products will carry the changes as early as this spring, and all over-the counter medications must have the new labels within six years.

(Marijuananews note: Six years? They have really great  lobbyists!)

The FDA also will launch a promotional campaign to make the public aware of the changes.

Joe Smith, a pharmacist from Falls Church, Virginia, said many consumers are hesitant to ask pharmacists for guidance on taking over-the-counter drugs, and the new rules would help make sure they take the medications properly.

The idea for the new labels evolved from efforts to standardize nutrition labels on food, Shalala said.

The effort was the latest in "quality of life" themes, such as easing traffic jams and curbing pollution, that Gore has emphasized this week and will likely characterize his presidential campaign.