Removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act

The removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act has been proposed repeatedly since 1972. The dispute is based on differing views on both how the Act should be interpreted and what kinds of scientific evidence are most relevant to the rescheduling decision. In August 2016 the DEA reaffirmed its position and refused to remove Schedule I classification.

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Summary Removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act The removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act has been proposed repeatedly since 1972. The dispute is based on differing views on both how the Act should be interpreted and what kinds of scientific evidence are most relevant to the rescheduling decision. In August 2016 the DEA reaffirmed its position and refused to remove Schedule I classification. The DEA announced that it will end restrictions on the supply of marijuana to researchers and drug companies that had previously only been available from the government’s own facility at the University of Mississippi. As of August 2018, 33 states and Washington, D. C. have legalized the use of medical marijuana. The petition was ultimately denied after 22 years of court challenges, but a synthetic pill form of cannabis’s psychoactive ingredient, THC, was rescheduled in 1986 to allow prescription under schedule II. A second petition, based on claims related to clinical studies, was denied in 2001. The most recent rescheduler petition filed by medical cannabis advocates was in 2002, but it was denied by the DEA in July 2011. In a letter to the Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Jon Gettman argued that cannabis does not fit each of the three criteria for placement in Schedule I. He argues that since laboratory animals do not self-administer cannabis, cannabis’ toxicity is virtually non-existent compared to heroin or cocaine, cannabis lacks the high abuse potential required for inclusion in schedule I or II or the high potential for abuse for use in humans. The former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws argued that since cannabis has not been proven to cause severe psychological or physical dependence, it does not meet the criteria for Schedule I or even schedule II status.

The letter indicates that the classification was intended to be provisional and that the drug has a potential for potential abuse for similar reasons to heroin and cocaine. In the U.S., cannabis is currently classed in schedule II along with its active constituents, the tetrahydrocannibinols and other psychotropic drugs. It is presently classed as schedule I along with its active constituents and other Psychotropic drugs, including marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, and ketamine. In 1970, Congress placed cannabis into Schedule I on the advice of Assistant Secretary of Health Roger O. Egeberg. In 1972, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse released a report favoring decriminalization of cannabis. The Nixon administration took no action to implement the report. In a prior communication, the FDA said the agency was conducting an analysis on whether marijuana should be downgraded, at the request of the DEA. At a congressional hearing in June 2014, the Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs at the FDA says the agency is conducting a review of the scientific aspects of the drug classification scheme incorporated in H. R. 18583. Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marijuana be retained within schedule I at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue.