The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) may decide to reclassify cannabis to a less dangerous schedule, or category of drugs, in the near future. For decades, ever since 1970, marijuana has been classified by the DEA as a Schedule 1 drug. That designation places marijuana in the same category of drugs that includes heroin and LSD. Schedule I drugs are said to have no purpose medically and to cause “potentially severe psychological or physical dependence,” according to the New York Daily News.
DEA May Reclassify Cannabis to Less Dangerous Category in Near Future
The DEA will reportedly decide sometime during the first half of 2016 whether it will reclassify cannabis and place it into a different schedule of drugs. The DEA has rejected past petitions in 2001 and 2006 to reclassify the drug, however, and the current head of the organization has voiced his opposition to the idea that cannabis has any medical benefits.
According to the head of the DEA, Chuck Rosenberg, in a statement he gave in November, he said that he was bothered by “the notion that marijuana is also medicinal.” He said that marijuana was not medicinal, at all, stating, “don’t call it medicine — that is a joke.”
The Washington Times mentioned in an article on the possible reclassification of cannabis that, according to a 2015 report by the Brookings Institution,the DEA has rarely reclassified any drugs. The organization has only done so five times in its history.
A Gallup poll from 2015 indicated that 58 percent of Americans would like to see cannabis legalized for recreational use, and it has been legalized in 23 states for medical use, and Oregon, Alaska, the District of Columbia, Washington, and Colorado have approved it for recreational use. However, under federal laws, it still remains entirely illegal. If cannabis was reclassified down to a Schedule II drug, like cocaine, oxycodone, and morphine, it would still be considered to be illegal under federal laws, but it would make it easier for researchers to legally get access to it for experiments to determine more about its medicinal value and other effects.
The University of Mississippi currently grows all cannabis that is intended for research purposes. In 2015, however, only eight researchers were shipped any of it to use in studies, amounting to just 20 shipments, in all.
Some studies have researched cannabinoids, rather than cannabis. One of the researchers, Kevin Hill, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital, is involved in overseeing two studies designed to “determine ways to treat a small percentage of marijuana users who become addicted to the drug.”
As a way to inform legislators about the DEA’s possible reclassification of cannabis, the organization has sent them a 25-page letter, according to Complex. The DEA is planning to make a decision by “no later than July.”
A decision by the DEA to reclassify marijuana may come with the next few months, possibly by July. By 2020, legal sales of cannabis, or marijuana, have been projected to reach over $20 billion annually. Though the DEA has turned down petitions to reclassify marijuana in the past, and the head of the organization feels that marijuana has no medical value, the time might be ripe this year for the drug to finally be reclassified. For more CDA News, follow our tweets on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
By John Samuels
Photo by Ryan Lackey – Creative Commons License