Dale Gieringer director of California NORML (National Organization for Reforming Marijuana Laws), thinks the DEA, as a law enforcement agency, shouldn’t be responsible for decisions on how to classify drugs. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. “Marijuana is that product, and its Schedule I designation is that locked door”.
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The Food and Drug Administration did not respond immediately to requests for comment. The government has repeatedly rejected appeals for reclassification.
Additionally, the DEA said yesterday that private companies working on new drug development would be able to apply to grow marijuana, meaning that, for the first time in generations, for-profit companies could develop marijuana-based medicines in the United States with the federal government’s approval. The announcement reaffirms the DEA’s stance that marijuana, which has been decriminalized to varying degrees by half the states in the country, including Washington D.C., does not meet established criteria for medical use and has a high potential for abuse. Californians will vote in November on whether to legalize it for recreational use.
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The position of the USA government on marijuana has impacts for states that have legalized its recreational or medical use. Doctors and businesses growing, selling or prescribing cannabis may be operating legally within a given state, but still acting in opposition to federal law, risking arrest and sanctions. Supporters say by keeping it as a schedule one drug, it’s largely preventing those clinical trials from being done – specifically at research universities. Despite refusing to reclassify marijuana, the DEA did propose a new policy that would allow universities, public and private, to apply to grow marijuana for research. “This shows that the federal government is flexible on legitimate research but is nowhere near wanting to legalize marijuana”.
