On Thursday, the Obama administration announced that marijuana would continue to be listed as a Schedule I drug, meaning that the federal government continues to believe that marijuana belongs on the list of the nation’s most unsafe drugs – and that pot has no medical benefit.
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The DEA yesterday said it would keep marijuana in the Schedule I category of drugs, which means it has “no now accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”. Schedule II drugs, such as the powerful narcotic painkillers that have caused an epidemic of addiction over the past decade, have medicinal value but “a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence”.
If the scientific understanding about marijuana changes, and it could, Rosenberg told the governors and Krumm, the decision could change.
The Food and Drug Administration said agency officials reviewed more than 500 studies on the use of medical marijuana, identifying only 11 that met the agency standards for “legitimate testing”. Failure to do so continues the federal government’s “Flat Earth” position on pot, willfully ignoring the well-established therapeutic properties associated with cannabis and the laws in 26 states recognizing marijuana’s therapeutic efficacy. The university has an exclusive contract with the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to provide the nation’s entire research supply, according to the DEA.
Kirsten Gillibrand of NY said in a statement, “It shouldn’t take an act of Congress for the DEA to get past antiquated ideology and make this change”.
Legal marijuana businesses have difficulty finding banks that will work with them, also due to concerns about breaking federal law. States that have legalized pot are taking a fresh look at making it easier for out-of-state investors to get in the weed business, saying the pot industrys ongoing difficulty banking means they need new options to finance expansion. This seems to be political which is ironic since Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have both admitted to using marijuana at some point in their lives, and libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson actually owned a pot farm.
“This decision doesn’t go far enough and is further evidence that the DEA doesn’t get it”, Blumenauer said in a statement.
Jaclyn Stafford, an assistant manager at The Station dispensary in Boulder, Colorado, called the DEA’s decision “an inaccurate judgment of the plant”.
What’s scary is that this movement toward legalization, including in California, has been happening without the benefit of controlled clinical trials. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a Republican, filed a petition asking the DEA to reclassify marijuana, a move that would have allowed pharmacies to fill pot prescriptions.
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“That ought to give the federal government the evidence it needs to reduce barriers to the potential medical benefits of marijuana”, he said. Legally, that prohibits the DEA from reclassifying the drug. The drug enforcement administration announced this week that it would not reduce restrictions on marijuana. “If placing cannabis in Schedule II would allow the federal government to shut down state programs more easily, the DEA would have done that by now”.
