Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have launched a medical experiment that doesn't follow any of the rules of science.
By approving the use of marijuana as a medicine -- with varying kinds of restrictions -- these jurisdictions are bypassing the federal government's elaborate processes for approving medicines.
That's highly unusual. In fact, it's only happened once in recent memory: In the late 1970s, about half the states legalized the use of laetrile, an extract of apricot pits, as a cancer treatment. At least 50,000 cancer patients took it before it was exposed as totally useless.
Nobody argues that marijuana is the new laetrile. For one thing, nobody's claiming it cures any fatal diseases. But it is a departure from the usual rules of evidence for drugs.
