DEA decides to keep marijuana in ‘most dangerous’ class

“You feel like you just can’t do those great, high-quality trials” that researchers do with other drugs, she said. And for some reason, marijuana.

Even though the DEA still considers weed to be as unsafe as heroin, medical advances involving cannabis treatments could jumpstart the movement for a nationwide legalization. Not only that, 43% say they’ve tried weed at least once.

“Americans have spoken, with a majority supporting full legalization”, Blumenauer said in a statement.

At least 25 states and the District of Columbia have approved the use of medical marijuana for conditions ranging from epilepsy to arthritis. But simultaneously with the DEA’s announcement, the Obama administration said last week it would lift roadblocks to research that could lead to a more rational approach toward marijuana.

Practical Pain Management spoke with DEA spokesperson Barbara Carreno to find out what this decision means moving forward for pain patients and for their physicians and other caregivers, as well as for the research community. According to the DEA, it does not. In its report, the DEA indicated cannabis has no accepted medicinal use at this time, indicating that “the drug’s chemistry is not known and reproducible; there are no adequate safety studies; there are no adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy; the drug is not accepted by qualified experts; and the scientific evidence is not widely available”. The Obama administration will increase the number of research universities licensed to supply marijuana by a yet-unspecified number. “Marijuana shouldn’t be listed as Schedule I; it shouldn’t be listed at all”.

Some Colorado universities now receive funding for marijuana research from the state, but Gershman said that support is far from reliable. In addition, researchers can not test the marijuana product themselves in order to know the strain or potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana) or whether it has contaminants, Bainbridge said. Agency notes concerns over safety and addiction, but will not interfere with current states that have legalized marijuana. They believe that the DEA’s recent involvement could open the way to high-quality cannabis research which could produce pot-based drugs over the next 10 years.

Barth Wilsey, MD, a clinical investigator at the University of California (UC) Center for Medicinal Cannabis, UC San Diego, weighed in on the DEA’s response, agreeing that changes in the approval of additional growers of marijuana to supply researchers could potentially be beneficial. The agency is loosening restrictions on research into medical marijuana, which up to now has required all research marijuana to come from a single MS facility.

“If you were a researcher who thought a product with high THC would help someone with a painful cancer, you were out of luck”, John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Times.

In conclusion, Rosenberg stated, “Using established scientific standards that are consistent with that same FDA drug approval process and based on the FDA’s scientific and medical evaluation, as well as the legal standards in the CSA, marijuana will remain a Schedule I controlled substance”.

So is there any good news?

Moving marijuana to Schedule II would allow medical practitioners to prescribe it to patients across the US. Several lawmakers, advocates, and doctors have expressed their disapproval of the DEA’s decision. Its costs appear to outweigh its benefits.

The DEA says that the change is motivated by a high demand from scientists and a desire to encourage research on pot. The FBI has placed restriction since more than four decades on the growth of cannabis to be supplied to the University of MS for the goal of research.