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posted by cmn32480 on Friday August 12 2016, @01:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the legalize-it dept.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has once again rejected attempts to reschedule cannabis and allow medical cannabis federally:

The Obama administration has denied a bid by two Democratic governors to reconsider how it treats marijuana under federal drug control laws, keeping the drug for now, at least, in the most restrictive category for U.S. law enforcement purposes. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Chuck Rosenberg says the decision is rooted in science. Rosenberg gave "enormous weight" to conclusions by the Food and Drug Administration that marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States," and by some measures, it remains highly vulnerable to abuse as the most commonly used illicit drug across the nation.

"This decision isn't based on danger. This decision is based on whether marijuana, as determined by the FDA, is a safe and effective medicine," he said, "and it's not." Marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, alongside heroin and LSD, while other, highly addictive substances including oxycodone and methamphetamine are regulated differently under Schedule II of the law. But marijuana's designation has nothing to do with danger, Rosenberg said.

The Post article notes:

In the words of a 2015 Brookings Institution report, a move to Schedule II "would signal to the medical community that [the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health] are ready to take medical marijuana research seriously, and help overcome a government-sponsored chilling effect on research that manifests in direct and indirect ways."

However, the DEA will expand the number of locations federally licensed to grow cannabis for research from the current total of... 1: the University of Mississippi.

Related: Compassionate Investigational New Drug program


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @05:42AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @05:42AM (#387401)

    If the other compounds (CBD, THCV, etc.) are in fact medically useful, then they can get approved just like THC.

    If faster action or non-swallowing is needed, then an IV version can get approved. Other options are patches, inhalers, and anal suppositories. If it is better, it can get approved.

    You might complain that getting approval is expensive, but the same would apply to getting the raw plant approved. It's absurd to seek approval of the raw plant when it takes no more or less expense to approve the pure chemicals.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @01:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @01:24PM (#387480)

    The barriers to approval are political, not scientific.

    There is also no good reason for the plant to be on Schedule 1, even if weed is not a miracle medicine. Let the ATF rather than DEA/FDA regulate it.