“Police officers in the 1960’s were fond of bumper stickers reading: ‘The next time you get mugged, call a hippie.’ Doctors today could use a variation: ‘The next time you’re in pain, call a narc.’ Washington’s latest prescription for patients in pain is the statement issued last week by the Food and Drug Administration on the supposed evils of medical marijuana. The F.D.A. is being lambasted, rightly, by scientists for ignoring some evidence that marijuana can help severely ill patients. But it’s the kind of statement given by a hostage trying to please his captors, who in this case are a coalition of Republican narcs on Capitol Hill, in the White House and at the Drug Enforcement Administration. They’ve been engaged in a long-running war to get the F.D.A. to abandon some of its quaint principles, like the notion that it’s not fair to deny a useful drug to patients just because a few criminals might abuse it.” (04/25/06)