WHEREAS, the International Association of Chiefs of Police meeting at its 104th Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, passed a resolution urging all governments and governing bodies to vigorously protect the health and safety of their citizens through an adherence to established medical and scientific criteria as the sole basis for determining when a dangerous drug has a bona fide medical purpose; and WHEREAS, the reason the International Association of Chiefs of Police continues to oppose ballot initiatives which would allow physicians under certain conditions to recommend or prescribe Schedule I drugs for patients is the fact that not one national health organization accepts marijuana or other Schedule I drugs as a medicine, and many researchers adamantly state that marijuana or other Schedule I drugs have no medical benefit whatsoever; and WHEREAS, it is neither rational nor compassionate to provide a harmful, addictive drug with no scientifically proven medical efficacy; and WHEREAS, the National Institute of Medicine, in a recently completed study of the medical benefits of marijuana, has reaffirmed that the effects of cannabinoids on the symptoms studied are generally modest and smoking marijuana results in the delivery of harmful substances, including most of those toxic substances found in tobacco smoke; and WHEREAS, this study also affirmed that there are more effective medical delivery systems than smoking marijuana; and WHEREAS, this study reaffirms our belief that modern medicine does not advocate the smoking of toxic substances and the inhaling of their smoke; and WHEREAS, we continue to believe that the best process to determine the medical efficacy of any substance is through an established medical and scientific testing and evaluation system that has served our citizens well and resulted in the highest quality medical services in the world; now therefore be it RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police duly assembled at its 106th Annual Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, reaffirms its opposition to any attempts to replace the established medical and scientific criteria for determining when a dangerous drug has a bona fide medical purpose.