After the passage of Prop 215 the Drug Czar declared that there was "not a shred of evidence" marijuana has any medical use and that government controlled "science" should determine what is medicine. And he created the IOM medical marijuana task force and he looked upon it and said that it was good.

But the damn thing let him down. It came back with more than a shred: "It will likely be many years before a safe and effective cannabinoid delivery system, such as an inhaler, will be available for patients. In the meantime, there are patients with debilitating symptoms for whom smoked marijuana might provide relief."

Worse, it devastated the major tenets of marijuana prohibition, that marijuana is "addictive" and is a "gateway drug."
See
Will The Titanic Of Marijuana Prohibition Be Sunk By The Ice Cube Of The IOM Report?
-- Analysis.
and
USA Today Runs A Good Article On The "Gateway Theory" Following IOM Report

The Czar's response was predictable. He did what he did with everything else that discredited marijuana prohibition. He pretended to like it and then lied about it.

See
Washington Post and New York Times on IOM Medical Marijuana
Compare and Contrast – A Split In The Establishment?
The Drug Czar’s Quote In The Post Wins The Prize.
and
AOL and Disney Help The Drug Czar Encourage Children To Use Hard Drugs
By Getting Their Parents to Lie To Them About Marijuana.
Cynical Distortion Of IOM Report
and
Drug Czar Lies Again About the Dutch, Who Respond With The Facts;
Czar’s Aid Says, "forces at work to legalize drugs are trying to bring
these wonderfully allied governments into conflict."

The one very large bone that the IOM threw to the prohibitionists was their opposition to "smoking."

This was all that they really needed. Indeed, it was perfect for them. It reduced everything down to a slogan for the true believers. It gave the Czar a tobacco leaf to hide behind.

However, the way the various prohibitionist organizations made use of the IOM report was more revealing for the future of prohibitionism as an ideology.

There are really two varieties of prohibitionist propaganda organizations, with some overlap.

The most obvious category is that representing those who have an economic interest in marijuana prohibition. This group includes the police, notably the DEA. A lot of government money is used by them to propagandize for marijuana prohibition.
See
Seattle Times Editorial Reports Washington State Lt. Governor Brad Owens Fined
For Using Tax Dollars To Campaign Against State Medical Marijuana Initiative

It also includes the vast testing and "treatment" industries. One of these is the Florida based Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.

Their expedient was very clever. They announced, "IOM and the Drug Free America Foundation, Inc. Agree: Smoking Marijuana is Not Medicine." They just lied about what it said.

See
Drug Free America Foundation Issues The First Prohibitionist Press Release
Using The IOM Report To Justify Arresting the Sick and Dying:
"Smoking Marijuana is Not Medicine."

See
Robert Scheer Writes Another Great Column
– This Time Nailing Barr, McCollum, and McCaffrey On Their Reaction To The IOM Report

The best example of an organization deeply committed to marijuana prohibition without major economic ties to the marijuana prohibition industrial complex is Gary Bauer’s Family Research Council, a major Washington based hate tank.

Their absolute allegiance to marijuana prohibition violates all of their other basic political beliefs in limited government. But that doesn’t matter. They have simply secularized the demonology funding method used by Commercial Christianity, as represented by the Tubbytelevangelists. They could not say that they agreed with the IOM, but they still lied about what it said. They also used the "No medicine is smoked" line, although that was not too important to them.

For them, the most important part of the prohibitionist ideology is the claim that any discussion of medical marijuana is just a plot to legalize all drugs. "Send us all your money or the evil legalizers will put crack vending machines in nursery schools." Their vested interest is in the ideology, not in marijuana prohibition itself. When marijuana is legalized, they will not be hurt at all. They will simply use the occasion to generate more paranoia amongst their constituency. It is very similar to the technique used by the Serb government.

"Marijuana legalizers are making serious gains across America by using the issue of ‘medical’ marijuana and the vehicle of compassion to buy sympathy votes. It’s time for law-abiding Americans to take account of drug legalizers’ gains, their consequences, their future threat, and what must be done to reverse them."

Their fostering of paranoia can be seen in their two press releases below. The first was issued the day of the IOM report. The second was issued yesterday. It is a part of an annual fund-raising pitch, the old phony survey gimmick, which would have happened even if the IOM report had not come out.

SOURCE: Family Research Council

Institute of Medicine Report Says Crude Marijuana is No Medicine, Urges Development of Non-Smoked Drugs
What Marijuana Legalizers Won’t Tell You: Substance Found in Marijuana Can Be Delivered Through Various Legal Means,’ Maginnis Says

(Marijuananews note: Does this make it sound like the IOM is one of the legalizers? Perfect!)

WASHINGTON, March 17, 1999

PRNewswire/ -- After a thorough analysis of the literature on marijuana, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has determined that crude marijuana is not up to par with other medicines in the United States. The IOM’s report released Wednesday rejected the theory that marijuana is a medicine, citing its negative health consequences.

"This has been our stance for years," said Robert Maginnis, Family Research Council Senior Director for National Security and Foreign Affairs.
(Marijuananews note: Remember, the prohibitionist counterattack in the 1970s was launched by the Senate Inrernal Security Subcommittee hearings on "Marijuana’s threat to the national security of the United States." Don’t laugh there have been millions of arrests as a result.)

"Providing good medicine—not marijuana—is the compassionate response to patients’ pain and illnesses."

The IOM report said, "Because of the health risks associated with smoking, smoked marijuana should generally not be recommended for long-term medical use."

Maginnis said, "What marijuana legalizers won’t tell you is that a substance found in marijuana can be delivered through various legal means."

One substance contained in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is currently available in legal, prescription forms taken orally. Other means of delivering the drug, such as through inhalers, which deliver the drug more rapidly to the bloodstream, are currently being developed.

(Marijuananews note: According to the Czar, it will be years before they are ready.)

The IOM did recommend strictly limited trials in which those who have attempted and failed every other means of therapy would use crude marijuana in a highly controlled setting for no more than six months.

(Marijuananews note: Of course, this contradicts what Maginnis is saying, but not what he is saying that they said.)

The report said, "The goal of the clinical trials would not be to develop marijuana as a licensed drug, but rather as a first step towards the possible development of non-smoked, rapid-onset cannabinoid delivery systems."

Maginnis said, "Marijuana legalizers are making serious gains across America by using the issue of ‘medical’ marijuana and the vehicle of compassion to buy sympathy votes. It’s time for law-abiding Americans to take account of drug legalizers’ gains, their consequences, their future threat, and what must be done to reverse them.

"Sick and dying people do not need marijuana. They need good medicine, which our doctors have available for every ailment marijuana allegedly helps."
(Marijuananews note: Just above they say, "The IOM did recommend strictly limited trials in which those who have attempted and failed every other means of therapy would use crude marijuana in a highly controlled setting for no more than six months."

SOURCE Family Research Council

Sixty percent of voters say the debate about marijuana’s usefulness as a medicine has had an impact on teens’ willingness to try the drug, according to a poll released by the Family Research Council Wednesday.

(Marijuananews note: The problem with this is that there is really no way for 60% of the voters to know whether this is true or not. They might guess that it does, but they don’t really know. And if it does, it has nothing to do with the merits or the argument. Moreover, there is substantial evidence to the contrary, but they probably didn't tell their respondents that.)

See
Lungren Delayed Release of Survey of California "Student Drug And Alcohol Use"
Showing Increase In Inhalants During His Tenure, But No Increase In Marijuana Use After Prop 215 –
Deceiving the People To The End
and links

Also, 64 percent said they opposed needle exchange programs when informed that recent scientific studies have found that addicts who were not enrolled in exchange programs were less likely to become AIDS-infected than those who were enrolled.

(Marijuananews note: The key point here is that the people were told that as a part of the polling.)

For a copy of FRC’s Annual Survey on Drug Policy, contact FRC’s press office.

"Americans are very concerned about the increase in teen drug use," said FRC’s Robert Maginnis, senior director for national security and foreign policy. "When presented with the details on drug policies, instead of emotional appeals, Americans see right through the smoke screen of drug legalizers and reject medical marijuana and needle exchange programs."

The poll also queried voters on other hot topics within the drug policy arena:

• Almost 90 percent of respondents said that pregnant drug users should be considered guilty of child abuse.
• Fifty-six percent said they believe that doctors should legally be able to prescribe as much pain medication as is necessary, even if that runs the risk of addiction.
  (Marijuananews note: In other words a doctor should be able to give massive doses of morphine but not marijuana.)
• Other results include a majority in support of random school-based drug testing with parental consent.

For the second year in a row, voters tapped drug interdiction to be the appropriate top federal priority in fighting drugs, with prevention being the second most important priority.

The findings are timely, given that bills already introduced in Congress would prohibit federal funds from going to needle exchange programs, and distribute funds to school districts for drug testing.