Posted on 08/11/2016 8:04:36 AM PDT by Wolfie
DEA decides not to loosen restrictions on marijuana, keeping it schedule 1 (with heroin)
After years of anticipation, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has decided whether it will remove marijuana from its harshest legal classification: Nope.
The decision means marijuana will remain schedule 1, a category that includes other drugs like heroin and LSD, and is ranked higher than schedule 2, where cocaine and meth remain.
Many advocates hoped marijuana would be rescheduled to schedule 2, particularly to unlock more research into the drug’s medical value. The DEA, however, said it would unlock more research through other means — specifically, by allowing more growing facilities for studies, undoing the University of Mississippi’s current monopoly status as the only federally legal pot grower.
The classification doesn’t mean the government thinks marijuana is more dangerous than cocaine or meth, or equally dangerous to heroin. It means that marijuana, like other schedule 1 drugs, is perceived by the federal government to have high potential for abuse and no medical value. Schedule 2 drugs, like cocaine, still have high potential for abuse, but they also have some acknowledged medical value.
It’s only once you get to schedules 3, 4, and 5 that a drug is deemed to have lower potential for abuse (like anabolic steroids and Xanax) — but these classifications also require that a drug has some acknowledged medical value.
Still, the decision denies a largely symbolic victory to marijuana legalization advocates. But it’s also a fairly obtuse decision — one rooted more in the federal government’s highly technical scheduling system than the question of whether marijuana really has medical value.
This isn’t the first time the DEA refused to reschedule marijuana — and this time, it seems to have used the exact same reasoning it used several times over the past few decades: There’s not enough evidence that pot has medical value.
Remember: The key to changing a drug from schedule 1 to the other schedules is finding that it has medical value — not whether it has lower potential for abuse or non-dangerous uses. So if there isn’t enough evidence to show a drug has medical value by the DEA’s standards, a drug remains schedule 1.
So far, no studies have demonstrated the criteria that the federal government typically requires for medicines. Specifically, no studies have proved marijuana’s medical efficacy in controlled, large-scale clinical environments, nor have any studies established adequate safety protocols for marijuana. And marijuana’s full chemical structure has never been characterized and analyzed.
There have been some studies showing marijuana has medical benefits, particularly for pain and muscle stiffness. But these studies haven’t been large enough to meet the threshold the DEA and other federal agencies, such as the FDA, require to prove a drug has medical value — by proving its worth in controlled, large-scale clinical trials.
But one reason there isn’t enough scientific evidence to change marijuana’s schedule 1 status might be, in fact, the drug’s schedule 1 status. The DEA restricts how much pot can go to research. To obtain legal marijuana supplies for studies, researchers must get their studies approved by HHS, the FDA, and the DEA — a costly, time-consuming process.
Changing marijuana’s schedule, in other words, is a bit of a Catch-22: There needs to be a certain level of scientific research that proves marijuana has medical value, but the federal government’s restrictions make it difficult to conduct that research.
To address those issues, the DEA hopes to allow much more research into pot in other ways. For one, it’s increased the amount of pot grown for research over the past few years, and it plans to continue doing so. Crucially, it also plans to let more people and facilities grow marijuana for studies — aside from University of Mississippi, the only federally legal grower right now.
That could significantly open up research access to pot — including potentially higher-quality marijuana and different strains of the drug, which the University of Mississippi doesn’t currently meet demands for. But the effects of the changes remain to be seen.
For legalization advocates, the DEA’s decision to not reschedule marijuana comes as a big symbolic loss. But the possible policy implications of rescheduling seem fairly small.
Drug policy experts, such as Mark Kleiman, have long said that rescheduling marijuana to schedule 2 — as advocates hoped the DEA would do this time around — wouldn’t have much of an effect. Schedule 2 substances typically require a prescription to be distributed, and the state-legal marijuana dispensaries and retail outlets don’t work through traditional prescriptions (they distribute “recommendations” for medical marijuana), so even rescheduling may not open up access. (Cocaine and meth are schedule 2, and they’re definitely not easily legally available, after all.)
Still, if the federal government acknowledged pot’s medical value through a schedule 2 classification, advocates hoped it would make federal agencies far more receptive to paying for and approving medical research into pot. But the DEA hopes its other steps will unlock far more research instead.
There would be some effects on policy, such as allowing state-legal marijuana businesses to deduct certain taxes, if marijuana was reclassified to schedule 3 or lower. But that’s extremely unlikely: Schedule 3 and lower drugs need to have some medical value and not meet criteria for “high potential for abuse.” Since marijuana is widely used recreationally, it’s a lock-in for “high potential for abuse,” keeping it at schedule 1 or 2. (If alcohol and tobacco weren’t explicitly excluded from the scheduling system by law, they would also very likely be schedule 1 or 2 for this same reason.)
One way around this is Congress could unschedule or reschedule marijuana by itself. But again, that’s unlikely.
The real victory from rescheduling, then, would largely be symbolic. At a time when most Americans support legalizing marijuana, and more states are legalizing the drug, a federal decision to potentially relax its restrictions on marijuana would validate that the country really is moving in a direction where pot will be more accessible and legal.
But the DEA’s decision denied that symbolic victory, leaving it to the next review — in as long as many more years — to see if anything changes.
There is just plain stupid and then you have governmental stupid.
Bad news for the newest member of the Choom gang.
agents not keeping up with budget eh...gotta imprison, ie, rob, betray citizens for the gangstamints profit..
disgusting the lies...
Does DEA have the authority to make the change? I find it hard to believe marijuana is hard coded in statute.
I wonder how much that decision cost Big Pharma and Big Tobacco?
I am not a druggie. I do think legalizing drugs sets a bad example.
But this is ridiculous. Weed just is not that destructive-—far less so than alcohol. Silly to put it on a plane with heroin.
A bad a decision as any gov’t agency has ever made. Hopefully this is fixed after President Trump (who has said the states should decide what to do about cannabis) takes office. in 2017
Vote Trump 2016
The DEA has precisely one interest at stake: maintaining power, and rescheduling pot won’t do that.
There’s more financial incentive in keeping it illegal and a law enforcement problem, than rescheduling it and permitting medical R&D, and usage. Follow the money...
The DEA is not about to kill the golden goose.
A DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY is dependent on having drugs that allow them to seize assets.
This was purely to maintain the big DEA budgets which translates to higher salaries and more power for head honchos there. Always follow the money.
I’m not a fan of legalizing weed, but this is really over the top.
Heroin is absolutely laying waste to vast stretches of this country.
TWO AMERICA ALERT:
Only the EXEMPT, like Obama and family, have access
to this legally, daily, and without fear.
Big Government logic at its finest. With, I'm sure, plenty of noise in their ears from the alcohol, tobacco, and pharma lobbies.
Get ride of weed and I am sure 50% plus agents are no longer needed.
Agents need this “substance” to justify their job...PERIOD
Plus then they need to go to the street for the private stash
This is stupid government in action.
Not even allowing medical research of A PLANT THAT GROWS THAT GOD MADE.
But that is fueled by prescription opiates that benefit Bith Pharma, so that's not going to go away anytime soon.
Schedule II:
Second, Schedule II substances are seen by the Legislature has a “little bit safer” if used by the general public. A substance may fall under Schedule II if the substance has (a) high abuse potential; (b) the substance is medically accepted or accepted with severe restrictions; and (c) abuse may cause the user to suffer from psychological or physical dependence. Some of the more well-known substances which are classified under Schedule II include: hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, cocaine, amphetamine, and methamphetamine.
Is marijuana really more dangerous than hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, cocaine, amphetamine, and methamphetamine?
ALL drugs (and everything else under the sun) have the potential to become addictive.
I am not in favor of legalizing marijuana; but there is a reason that marijuana is schedule 1. Think about it...
Aren't most of those generics that are typically made offshore?
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