DEA to Keep Marijuana in Same Class as Heroin Despite Majority of Americans Favoring Its Legal Use

Hillary Clinton Announces She Would Re-Classify Marijuana to Make It Available for Prescription Use

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced this week that it will not reschedule its classification of marijuana under the Controlled Substance Act, ThinkProgress reports, asserting that it will remain a Schedule I substance along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

“Schedule I drugs are considered the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence,” the DEA’s website reads. The announcement, which follows five years of deliberation, comes from DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg in response to a petition to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II substance. The reclassification would have allowed it to be made available for prescription purposes nationwide.

Decisions to reschedule a substance are mandated by the Controlled Substances Act in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Rosenberg’s response reads that the FDA and the DEA make the determination based on a full review of relevant scientific and medical literature.

“The FDA drug approval process for evaluating potential medicines has worked effectively in this county for more than 50 years,” Rosenberg wrote. “It is a thorough, deliberate, and exacting process grounded in science, and properly so, because the safety of our citizens relies on it.”

He further advised that the determination is consistent with the FDA’s scientific and medical evaluation, which is conducted by a scientific assessment team consisting of clinical pharmacologists, epidemiologists, toxicologists, physicians, chemists, statisticians and other scientists, as well as the legal standards set by the Controlled Substance Act.

The results of their studies, Rosenberg concludes, indicate that marijuana “does not have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, [that] there is a lack of accepted safety for its use under medical supervision, and it has a high potential for abuse.”

Despite the DEA’s refusal to reschedule the substance, many scientists and researchers cite the medical benefits of marijuana. “Dozens of scientists, myself included, have been engaged in [marijuana research] for decades,” Carl L. Hart writes via Scientific American. “That is how we know, for example, that the drug stimulates appetite in HIV-positive patients, which could be a lifesaver for someone suffering from AIDS wasting syndrome, and that marijuana is useful in the treatment of neuropathic pain, chronic pain, and spasticity due to multiple sclerosis.”

Also seemingly in opposition of the DEA’s refusal, an October 2015 poll released by Gallup indicates that 58% of Americans favor the legal use of marijuana, the highest in Gallup’s then 46 years of posing the question:

This is echoed by the twenty-plus states, as well as Washington D.C., which have already passed laws allowing for the use of medical marijuana. Eight additional states will find marijuana policies on the ballot in November, with Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada considering full legalization. Arkansas and Florida will vote on medical marijuana use, while Montana considers a measure to restore its medical marijuana law.

The sentiment is further echoed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In a statement reported by The Denver Post, senior policy advisor to the Clinton campaign Maya Harris advised that Clinton believes “we should make it easier to study marijuana so that we can better understand its potential benefits, as well as its side effects… As president, Hillary will build on the important steps announced [by the DEA] by rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance.”

Marijuana was first classified as a Schedule I substance in 1970 by the Nixon administration. The first unsuccessful petition to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II substance was made two years later in 1972. The full letter from the DEA declining the most recent effort can be read here.

“If the scientific understanding about marijuana changes, and it could change,” Rosenburg concluded in his statement, “then the decision could change.”