(MPP) A little-known federal government program that supplies medical marijuana to a handful of patients [marks] its 30th anniversary [tomorrow].

The federal medical marijuana program — referred to as a Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program — resulted from a lawsuit filed by glaucoma patient Robert Randall, who successfully showed that his use of marijuana was a medical necessity.

The program slowly grew for over a dozen years. In the wake of a flood of new applications from patients battling AIDS — who found that marijuana boosted their appetites and relieved the nausea often caused by anti-HIV drugs — the George H.W. Bush administration closed it to new applicants in March 1992, but continued supplying federal marijuana to those already receiving it. Four of those patients survive today.

“Most Americans would be shocked to know that the federal government supplies medical marijuana to patients while claiming that marijuana is a harmful drug with no medical value,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. “If federal officials believe their own statements, they’re knowingly poisoning four innocent people, but in fact they know better. The four remaining patients in the federal program have benefited from their medical marijuana use, groups like the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association have said that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine and, as a result, we must change the federal laws that prohibit medical marijuana.”

Officially, the Compassionate IND is a research program. Participants were required to sign a consent document calling the program a “study.” Yet the federal government has never studied the patients in the “study.” In fact, the only study ever published of these patients was privately financed and conducted.

“May 10 marks the 30th anniversary of federal hypocrisy and dishonesty about medical marijuana,” Kampia said. “When future historians see how much effort our government made to avoid learning that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine, they’ll shake their heads in disbelief.”

I’ve had the privilege of meeting two of the remaining patients: Irv Rosenfeld of Florida and Elvy Musikka of Oregon. The marijuana grown for them is harvested at the one legal federal garden at the University of Mississippi. It is some very poor marijuana; the government harvests the whole plant, stems, seeds and all, grinding it up and using it in 300 marijuana joints sent in a big tin once per month. It is not in the government’s interest, after all, to provide well-groomed, well-bred, more potent forms of marijuana; those strains might show even more therapeutic value and thereby undercut the government’s arguments about marijuana’s danger.