NATION : DEA Rejects Move to Reclassify Marijuana for Medical Therapy
The Drug Enforcement Administration rejected a recommendation today that marijuana be reclassified for use as a prescription medicine to treat patients suffering from glaucoma, cancer and other diseases.
DEA Administrator John Lawn announced the order, saying the hallucinogenic drug will remain “under the strictest level of federal control.”
The Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws first petitioned the agency in the 1970s, seeking to make marijuana available for medical use.
Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, who presided over hearings in the case, recommended in 1988 that the DEA recognize marijuana as having medicinal applications.
Lawn rejected that judge’s recommendation, finding “a lack of credible evidence to support a conclusion that safety, efficacy and acceptance had been demonstrated for the medical use of marijuana.”
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