In 1988 the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's administrative law judge, Francis L. Young, declared that "marihuana," in its natural form, fulfilled the legal requirement of currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. He added that it was "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."

Notice that Judge Young chose his words very precisely, referring to Cannabis in it's "natural form". He did not use the word "drug" in reference to the "marihuana" plant because Cannabis is in fact not a drug. Cannabis is an "herb" with undeniable therapeutic and exceptional nutritional values.

The unique and essential nutritional profile of Cannabis seed makes "hemp"seed the best available source of vegetable protein on Earth. Cannabis is also the only common seed with three essential fatty acids (EFAs) in proper proportion for long-term consumption. Such properties warrant emphasis of this herb's distinct value and people's fundamental, "self-evident" right to grow it.

Any herb can be rendered into a drug, but no drug can be made into an herb. Because there is not a drug on Earth that produces seed, failure to make the legal distinction between herbs and drugs is a matter which has impacted global food security, biodiversity, organic agriculture and free market economics.

It is great that GW Pharmaceuticals is investigating the potential for Cannabis-based drugs, but to deny the significance of herbal therapeutics and nutritional approaches to healing impoverishes everyone. On the first page of the Bible, God's first instructions to man and animal were to use "every herb bearing seed" for food.

To create a demand for drugs made from herbal Cannabis by denying people access to the "safest therapeutically active substance known to man" is a violation of justice, reason and morality that is indefensible, and may prove to be extinctionistic.