DEA Ignores Evidence And Keeps Marijuana As Schedule I Drug

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration filed documents with the Federal Register on Thursday outlining its denial of petitions to reschedule marijuana. 

The filings, which are expected to be published Friday, included the rescheduling decision, a rejection of the medical use of marijuana, statements of principles on industrial hemp, and a move to allow more entities to cultivate marijuana for research purposes. The DEA’s denial of the petitions — which was anticipated — was rooted in the recommendations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, which both conducted scientific and medical evaluations and eventually determined that marijuana should remain a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, DEA officials said.

Via the Denver Post.

Suffice it to say that the DEA's conclusion is, in fact, notwithstanding its claims, not based in science and is absurdly at odds with what almost everyone familiar with the medical and non-medical use of marijuana knows to be true.

This is an ideological decision made by an agency that is in no way impartial. It contradicts the considered opinions of half of the legislatures in the United States.  It contradicts a wealth of convincing evidence, albeit much of it not in published peer review journal articles due to a Catch-22 that prohibited researchers from operating in that fashion.

It is a decision that materially harms legitimate businesses and perpetuates a counter-factual criminal justice nightmare.

This head in the sand decision is a case of willful blindness that should be legislatively modified at once.