Many States Have Legalized Medical Marijuana, So Why Does DEA Still Say It Has No Therapeutic Use?
More than half the states–28, to be exact–including Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota as of the Nov. 8 election, and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for certain medical conditions.
And yet, the Drug Enforcement Administration still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, defined by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act as a drug that has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use (emphasis is mine) in the United States. Other Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD and ecstasy.
Only the Food and Drug Administration can determine whether marijuana has an accepted medical use, according to the DEA, and so far, it hasn’t. Because marijuana is a Schedule I drug, doctors can only “recommend” it to patients, not write prescriptions for it that they can fill at a drugstore.
But Congress has the authority to reclassify controlled substances, and the president can ask his attorney general, who oversees the DEA, or his Health and Human Services secretary, who oversees the FDA, to initiate rulemaking to reclassify them, Brookings Institution senior fellow John Hudak told me.
The closest Congress has come recently were identical bills introduced in early 2015 in the House and the Senate, neither of which came up for a vote. The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect Status, or “CARERS,” Act, which had bipartisan support, would have reclassified marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II, which includes drugs such as morphine and oxycodone that have a high potential for abuse but also have an accepted medical use. The CARERS Act also would have amended the Controlled Substances Act to say that its provisions related to marijuana did not apply to people complying with state medical marijuana laws.
And while Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said she would reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug, Trump was vaguer during the campaign. At a rally a year ago, he said only that “I think medical should happen” when asked about marijuana.
Filed under: General Problems
“Only the Food and Drug Administration can determine whether marijuana has an accepted medical use, according to the DEA,”
LOL … As usual, the DEA shifts the blame to someone else. It’s never their fault. Shortages of CS II medications across the country? It’s the pharmacies faults or the faults of the manufacturers. Can’t reschedule MJ to a II, III, or IV? It’s the FDA’s fault. Can’t unscheduled it? It’s a dangerous drug. (*snort-laugh*)
We know the DEA has been a huge waste of our tax $$’s. We know the DEA would rather practice medicine without a license by monitoring doctors’ prescribing habits of CS II, III, and IV meds. We know the DEA would rather practice pharmacology without a license by monitoring pharmacies’ orders of CS II, III, and IV meds.
In other words, it’s much easier, safer, and more profitable to go after doctors and pharmacists (as they usually have more assets to seize – personal and business) instead of actually getting out and busting the drug cartels and big-time drug dealers of dangerous drugs.
This is why cheap heroin is flowing into our streets, along with illicitly-produced “banned” fentanyl analogs. The DEA has been too busy with their witch hunt on doctors and pharmacists that they have completely ignored all the crap that is on our streets.
The DEA has been given too much power and authority. They are above the law and answers to no one when they, themselves, break the laws, violate humans’ constitutional rights (4th amendment) and civil rights. They do not need to be “reformed.” They need to be completely abolished.
Ditto,,to Mr.Payne…..jmo,,,,get rid of the dea,,,de-fund them,,or shift their focus on terrorist,,,,,,,,the dea has done more harm then good,,,,,,too sooooo many innocent people,,,,,defund them!!,,,mary
One word response to the DEA question: POWER!