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 The DEA though did relax certain restrictions on growing marijuana
for research purposes.
For decades, marijuana has been listed as a "Schedule I" drug,
placing it on par with heroin. The government has repeatedly
rejected appeals for reclassification.
"Marijuana shouldn’t be listed as Schedule I," U.S. Representative
Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, said in a statement. He
said the decision left "patients and marijuana businesses trapped
between state and federal laws."
Thursday's DEA decision was a response to a 2011 petition by two
former state governors who had urged federal agencies to re-classify
marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses.
In a letter to the petitioners, the DEA said it had asked the
Department of Health and Human Services for a scientific and medical
evaluation.
"HHS concluded that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no
accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable
level of safety for use even under medical supervision," the letter
said.
That assessment comes amid statistics showing zero overdose deaths
due to marijuana each year at a time of an alarming rise of
heroin-related deaths in the United States as politicians debate
remedies for exploding opioid abuse.
Twenty-five states have sanctioned some forms of marijuana use for
medical purposes. Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and the
District of Columbia now allow recreational use for adults, while
California and eight other states have recreational or medical
marijuana proposals headed for their 2016 ballots.
On Thursday, Arizona became the latest state to certify a ballot
initiative to legalize recreational marijuana for its November
ballot.
The position of the U.S. 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.
Legal marijuana businesses have difficulty finding banks that will
work with them, also due to concerns about breaking federal law.
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Some experts have argued that medical marijuana could help cut
opioid use.
Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry
Association, said the DEA's decision would curtail research since
marijuana would remain a criminal product.
“Research institutions are going to be somewhat hesitant if they
think they will potentially jeopardize other research funding,” she
said. "This decision by the DEA really flies in the face of
objective science."
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an alliance of doctors, policy makers
and treatment professionals who oppose legalization, took a
different view.
"I think it was a balanced decision and isn’t surprising to the
scientific community," said President Kevin Sabat.
Meanwhile, the DEA will allow more growers to apply for
certification by the agency to help supply researchers "with a more
varied and robust supply of marijuana." Now the University of
Mississippi is the lone such supplier.
Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals <GWP.L>, which is developing a
promising cannabis-derived epilepsy treatment, has said it will take
longer to reach the U.S. market even with Food and Drug
Administration approval because it would then have to be separately
rescheduled by the DEA.
(Additional reporting by Natalie Grover in Bangaluru, Jilian Mincer
in New York and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento; Editing by Lisa Von
Ahn and Diane Craft)
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