As state debates Prop. 215, some say U.S. stymies tests to prove pot's value.
Critics say the research is flawed.
Unraveling this decades-long mystery would seem an achievable goal, yet no studies have delivered the sort of ironclad proof needed to validate marijuana's merits as medicine. The reason, marijuana proponents say, has less to do with pot and more to do with politics. They contend that the federal government, girded for its war on the drug world, has in recent years stood in the way of significant clinical research into the potential therapeutic value of cannabis. Their prime exhibit is the drawn-out battle between federal drug officials and Dr. Donald Abrams, a noted AIDs researcher at UC San Francisco. But the oncologist said that despite obtaining private funding for the research, he has been blocked at every turn in his effort to obtain the research-grade marijuana necessary for his study to qualify as good clinical science.