The government is hoping you’ll die first

Those who have been with me for a long time, may have fond memories of the Data Quality Act posts. The Data Quality Act is legislation that allowed individuals and groups to challenge federal agencies on the accuracy of their data, and the agency was required to respond within 60 days. Cool, huh?
So Americans for Safe Access challenged Health and Human Services for their statements on medical marijuana and demanded changes to what the government was claiming (since the government position was unsupportable). Of course, the government agencies had an out — they could grant themselves an extension (or two, or three, or…) Naturally, HHS took advantage of every delaying tactic they could invent, and that 60 day response time started 870 days ago. But they’ve finally run out of hoops, and now ASA can sue them in court (part of the problem often is that courts won’t accept a challenge unless you’ve gone through the agency appeals process, which is how the agencies are able to stall).
The timing actually is pretty good, with new studies practically every day, and the recent DEA judge ruling in favor of growing marijuana for medical research.
Congrats to ASA for their ability to stick with the mind-numbing process.
Background posts on the Data Quality Act are here, here, and here.