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DEA Rejects Rescheduling Marijuana

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced today it will not initiate proceedings to reschedule marijuana from a Schedule 1 controlled substance. Why not? According to its notice, available here:

In accordance with the CSA rescheduling provisions, after gathering the necessary data, the DEA requested a scientific and medical evaluation and scheduling recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The 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. Therefore, the HHS recommended that marijuana remain in Schedule I....Based on the HHS evaluation and all other relevant data, the DEA has concluded that there is no substantial evidence that marijuana should be removed from Schedule I.

The DEA is locked in the stone age and as a result, marijuana will remain in the same schedule with controlled substances like heroin. The DEA says because of public interest in the topic, it is publishing all of its findings. The 186 page document, which will be published in the Federal Register, is available here.

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  • Display: Sort:
    If only the DEA would advance (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by desertswine on Thu Aug 11, 2016 at 12:15:24 PM EST
    into the Stone Age, it would be an improvement.

    The only government alphabet salad (none / 0) (#5)
    by Chuck0 on Thu Aug 11, 2016 at 01:53:40 PM EST
    more useless than TSA.

    Parent
    Agreed. (none / 0) (#15)
    by cpinva on Fri Aug 12, 2016 at 01:06:14 AM EST
    "The only government alphabet salad more useless than TSA."

    and I'm just going to guess that "report" from HHS gets stonewalled from any FOIA requests. were the report to have recommended taking it off Sch. I, that would have presented a bit of a problem for the DEA. by following that recommendation (which has actually been made before), the DEA's whole reason for existing would be tossed out the window. we aren't exactly talking about a completely objective actor here, the DEA has a financially vested interest in maintaining pot as some kind of comparable to heroin and crack cocaine, regardless of the reality, which is that it's not.

    color me stunned that HHS would generate these results for their client, DEA. not.


    Parent

    Obama -Why? He knows better (5.00 / 1) (#21)
    by womanwarrior on Fri Aug 12, 2016 at 11:12:22 PM EST
    I would like someone to give me a rational explanation of why Obama has refused to move on changing Marijuana from Schedule 1.  I understand the "lots of money to law enforcement" and "big pharma" and all that.  But really, what personally keeps him from doing the right thing on this?  He knows very well how many kids get started off with a criminal drug record.  He must know very well how it does help many people.  What is it?


    Great question (5.00 / 1) (#22)
    by CaptHowdy on Sat Aug 13, 2016 at 06:48:10 AM EST
    I've asked it myself

    Parent
    Heroin has no "accepted" medical use? (5.00 / 1) (#26)
    by jondee on Sat Aug 13, 2016 at 09:06:33 PM EST
    accepted by who?

    If minimizing the acute pain of terminal patients is still considered a "medical use", than according to the numerous accounts of the suffering, heroin has been "accepted" as working quite well..

    Though the creation of fentanyl (none / 0) (#27)
    by jondee on Sat Aug 13, 2016 at 09:26:19 PM EST
    has probably now made the question of the usefulness of heroin a moot point..

    And fentanyl is already speedily accruing the stigma that heroin took decades to acquire.

    Parent

    I am shocked, shocked I tell you - (none / 0) (#1)
    by Mr Natural on Thu Aug 11, 2016 at 11:34:04 AM EST
    to read that the crime most cheerfully monetized by the prison-industrial complex has not been today decriminalized.


    WTF (none / 0) (#2)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Aug 11, 2016 at 11:57:10 AM EST

    has no accepted medical use in the United


    Sorry election year fan club members (none / 0) (#4)
    by jondee on Thu Aug 11, 2016 at 01:50:09 PM EST
    but this an issue that definitively proves that Obama and many of his fellow Democrats haven't yet grown a fully developed "pair".

    What exactlty is it about the impenetrable fiefdom of the DEA and it's law enforcement colleagues that strikes such utter terror even in those ensconced in the mighty "corridors of power"?

    Parent