Nanny FDA will tell us what's the right medicine to take

Mark, over at South Puget Sound Libertarian, posted an excellent blog entry on the FDA's recent ruling concerning medical use of marijuana. I read about the ruling in Friday's Seattle PI, but I didn't have the time then to make an entry. I can't improve on the coverage that Mark's given to the politically motivated ruling that goes against other scientific research that supports marijuana's postive medical attributes. I would like to contribute some further research to support how politically biased the FDA is.

Please take a moment to read up about the FDA's continued brown nosing of Congress and the DEA. The LA Times wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning article, back in 2000, about the proven track record of the FDA bending over to accommodate politics, at the peril of patients' lives. The rapid review policies started during the early days of AIDS research, according to the LA Times article, and then morphed into what we see today. The first drug reviews to accelerate were for life threatening conditions, like AIDS and cancers.

The definition of what is a "serious" medical condition must have changed, with added pressure from Capitol Hill and various pharmacological lobbying pushes. Take a look at this list of twelve FDA approved medications withdrawn from the market for safety reasons, starting in 1997. This PBS Frontline document was posted online Nov. 13, 2003. Since that time, more medications, like Vioxx, have been removed. Take a look at what these drugs were prescribed for. How many of them were for life threatening situations? A big, fat goose egg.

With the nannyism of the FDA, it's been easy to forget caveat emptor. The sound scientific foundation the FDA was established on has cracked under the weight of the ever-growing fedbeast. It's time to take back control of what we put in our bodies. We are the owners of our bodies, not federal agencies, even though we are spoon-fed a different story each day. Check and recheck what is prescribed to you. Just because your physician recommends a particular medication doesn't mean it's right for you (or anyone for that matter). She might not even know it well. Examine closely the physician comments in each of the articles I've put up links for.

Keep in mind that there are numerous treatment options available, even alternative treatments. It's up to each one of us to check out our medical options. The FDA, or any other nanny-state organization, isn't going to do it for you, even though they'd like to keep the blindfolds on and lull us into apathy. The FDA's ability to remain objective and adhere to sound scientific standards is shattered.