HHS gets a letter

Via Americans for Safe Access,
Senator James Jeffords (Vermont) sent a letter (pdf) to Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, asking why they hell it’s taking them so long to do their job in the legal process of evaluating a petition to reschedule marijuana (he worded it a little different than I did, but the polite language barely covers his annoyance).

follow-up on your answer to a question I asked during your
confirmation process. … the law requires the Secretary to conduct this evaluation “within a reasonable time.” … you stated that you “would make every effort to complete
the evaluation by August 2005.” Needless to say August 2005 has long since
passed … and yet no action has been taken … Please describe the factors that have led to this delay …

It’s good to have a Senator paying attention to the foot dragging by HHS. Eventually that agency is going to have to actually come up with something due to the accumulated political pressure or through a court order. Of course the problem (from the perspective of HHS) is that they’ll no choice but to

1. show that medical marijuana is viable, or
2. they’ll have to lie with specific detail that can be publicly and scientifically refuted.