The DEA declined to comment. However earlier on Wednesday, the agency had sent emails, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, to parties that had expressed an interest in the matter, saying it would be making “important announcements regarding marijuana related topics” on Thursday.
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The Food and Drug Administration did not respond immediately to requests for comment. 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. The government has repeatedly rejected appeals for reclassification.
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have legalized weed for medical use, starting with California way back in 1996.
“Marijuana lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision”.
Charlene Graham, the chair for Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo – the group asking for the banishment of commercial recreational marijuana in Pueblo County – said the DEA made a good decision not reclassifying pot from a schedule I drug and keeping it in the same class of drugs such as heroin and LSD. However, in a letter to petitioners seeking marijuana’s rescheduling to a lower level of regulation, DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg left a potential downgrade on the table.
The US might soon enter into a new era of medicine, after the Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday said it would make it easier for researchers and private companies to grow or obtain marijuana for research.
Scientists will still have to receive federal government approval to conduct medical research of marijuana.
Oregon. Sen. Ron Wyden agreed, calling the DEA’s decision to expand research opportunities into marijuana “the one little bit of sunlight here”.
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“This is a vindication for science and for people who have said to go slow”, Kevin Sabet said.
