Rosenberg said designating marijuana a Schedule I drug does not necessarily mean it is as risky as other drugs. Several Democratic legislators had urged DEA to reclassify marijuana to a Schedule II drug. However, in a separate policy proposal also issued on Thursday, the agency handed researchers and advocates a victory in removing a significant roadblock to medical studies of marijuana.
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The University of Nebraska Medical Center launched a study this summer on cannabidiol use for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.
Heroin, LSD and ecstasy stand alongside marijuana on the DEA’s Schedule I list.
In the USA, there are only 350 researchers who are registered to conduct cannabis research.
Meanwhile, according to commentators, marijuana being a Schedule I substance (meaning that by definition it had “no now accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”), there were significant hurdles to in the way of its use for research.
“Marijuana lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision”. More than 1.4 million Americans are legally using medical cannabis and seeing positive effects, he said. “The Academy supports further study of cannabinoids, which limited research to date shows can help specific conditions in adults”, the group wrote a year ago.
That is the province of the Food and Drug Administration, he said. Marijuana is the only substance that DEA has prohibited from being produced by private laboratories for scientific research.
Twenty-five states allow the medical use of marijuana for health conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Crohn’s, Tourette’s syndrome, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, The Times reported.
“Our report shows that the DEA failed to take into account over 9,000 patient/years of data with medical cannabis products used in gold-standard clinical studies”, ASA senior scientist Dr. Jahan Marcu said in a statement.
Stacey Linn raises her hand in celebration with her son as Gov. John Hickenlooper signs the first medical marijuana in schools bill into law in 2015.
Then, after years of bureaucratic hurdles, it is the National Institute on Drug Abuse that has held the final key to the lock.
“Anyone in violation of federal drug law runs the risk of arrest and prosecution”, the DEA spokesman told us.
Q – How does the DEA’s decision affect state laws that allow the use and/or sale of marijuana for medicinal or recreational use? The memo is merely advisory and doesn’t mean the Justice Department has decided “to look the other way”, the DEA spokesman said. 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.
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Steven Wishnia is a New York-based journalist and musician, and the editor of Tenant/Inquilino.
