Group Sues Gov't to Stop Misinformation on Medical Marijuana (CNSNews.com) - A patients' advocacy group is suing the federal government to stop what it considers misinformation on medical marijuana. At issue is the government's position that "marijuana has no accepted medical value." The lawsuit charges that the Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration violated the Data Quality Act, which requires that the agencies rely on sound science and allows citizens to challenge government information believed to be inaccurate or based on faulty, unreliable data. "The FDA position on medical cannabis is incorrect, dishonest and a flagrant violation of laws requiring the government to base policy on sound science," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access. "The science to support medical cannabis is overwhelming, yet the government continues to play politics with the lives of patients desperately in need of pain relief," said ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer. The lawsuit was filed "to demand that the FDA stop holding science hostage to politics," Sherer added. "I had side effects from morphine patches, oxycontin, and oxycodone before starting a medical cannabis regime that has allowed me to get off prescription drugs and live virtually pain-free," said Blackfoot, Idaho resident Victoria Lansford, a named patient in the lawsuit who suffers from fibromyalgia. "The government's refusal to face up to the science is irresponsible and harms citizens like me for whom this treatment is a lifeline," she said.