If marijuana has therapeutic potential, it should be required to pass muster with the FDA like any other medicine (leaving aside how well FDA regulation works overall). We have considerable experience with making drugs from plant material, including the opium poppy. Neither the medical community nor government regulators sanction patients’ smoking (or vaporizing) opium for medical purposes; rather, we require that opiate products, including morphine for pain relief and paregoric for diarrhea, be standardized, controlled for quality, fully tested, delivered in an appropriate manner and shown to be safe and effective. Why should marijuana be any different?