Sure is a good thing there are no stupid laws or regulatory agencies in the USA

"...had to read this four or five times before I believed it. It is a perfect example of what Brussels does best. Spend three years, with 20 separate pieces of correspondence before summoning 21 professors to Parma where they decide with great solemnity that drinking water cannot be sold as a way to combat dehydration. Then they make this judgment law and make it clear that if anybody dares sell water claiming that it is effective against dehydration they could get into serious legal bother" --European Union critic Paul Nuttall

Newland says: I think this is a legitimate story about a ruling that a European marketer could not say on his bottled water's label that "water is a remedy for dehydration."

Google "bendy banana law" and you will get a lot of hits on stories about the EU's position on water as at least one way to relieve dehydration. You'll also see stories on the 2008 EU ban on bananas with too much curvature.

The title I gave this thread implies..., well, it implies that there are similar regulatory practices in which USA agencies engage. Consider these facts:

1. There is a considerable body of anecdotal (practical) evidence that cannabis has a wide range of therapeutic application in a wide range of patients exhibiting a wide range of symptoms for adverse medical conditions.

2. A significant number of medical associations have endorsed the proposal that accredited medical research facilities be allowed to conduct research in the application of cannabis as therapy in at least some adverse medical conditions.

3. Accredited medical research facilities have applied through federal channels for license to conduct such research.

4. Invariably these applications have been stymied by the "Drug Enforcement Administration," a group of miscreants whose number once included Elvis Presley. The DEA says: There IS no medical application for cannabis. We'd give you a license to conduct research, but even if your research suggests there is medical use for cannabis, there IS no medical use for cannabis, so it would be a waste of everyone's time.

In the light of the preceding few paragraphs, the EU's "dry water" ruling doesn't seem so unreasonable.