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"There are pieces of marijuana -- extracts or constituents or component parts -- that have great promise," he said. "But if you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana -- which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana -- it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine."
I'm with the activists who point to study after study showing it helps with chronic pain, muscle spasms and other ailments. In fact, here's an analysis of 79 studies from JAMA pointing to "moderate-quality evidence to support the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic pain and spasticity."

Like all "medical" marijuana pushers the author is dishonest. The quote from the DEA is exactly right. Smoked marijuana isn't a medicine. The author then attempt to prove him a liar by referring to JAMA about cannabinoids...which ARE those elements that have promise. NOT smoked marijuana. Furthermore from the JAMA page he linked to:

Conclusions and Relevance There was moderate-quality evidence to support the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic pain and spasticity. There was low-quality evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, weight gain in HIV infection, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome. Cannabinoids were associated with an increased risk of short-term AEs.

In other words, drugs derived from pot have only modest results or evidence that it works in cases of chronic pain or spasticity. And scant evidence that it works for anything else. In fact there are better drugs with less side effects for all these issues.

The ONLY reason there is such a thing as smoked marijuana being called "medical" is that a bunch of leftists want to make pot legal.

You are basically accusing those who want to come out of the shadows of being wrong because they were in the shadows. We know that as catch-22 or petitio principii.

In general herbal medicine, even the “legal” kind, isn’t well regulated. Some of these herbals DO have significant effects but they vary. I use a “legal” herbal and I have to be careful with it because if I use too much, I get too lethargic.

"there are patients with debilitating symptoms for whom smoked marijuana might provide relief. [...] Until a nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid drug delivery system becomes available, we acknowledge that there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting." - Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base (1999), Institute of Medicine