10 Apr DEA to Decide on Rescheduling Cannabis

In a recent letter to some US Senators, the Drug Enforcement Administration said it’s going to decide during the first half of this year whether to reschedule cannabis from a Schedule I drug, currently deemed as dangerous and worthless medically as heroin. In two previous decisions they decided not to change it, but that was awhile ago.

This is important for many reasons, the most important of which is research. If it were moved to Schedule II or III, many more opportunities to grow cannabis for medical research will be available. Currently there’s a cumbersome approval process requiring both DEA and FDA approval for research, and cannabis can only be grown at one university for the purpose.

The 1970 decision to put it in Schedule I was always intended to be provisional. With dozens of states now having approved legal use of medical marijuana, it’s time to start acknowledging the enormous potential for therapeutic benefits of marijuana by expanding research capability.