The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) informed the public on Thursday that it would not be removing marijuana from its most dangerous classification of narcotics.
The agency had been considering rescheduling the substance, after significant pressure from Capitol Hill. Its current listing as a “Schedule I” means the DEA considers cannabis among the most dangerous drugs in existence–substances with little to no medicinal value, like heroin and ecstasy.
The DEA, however, did make a slight tweak in its regulations that will allow more institutions to conduct medical research on marijuana. Schedule I classification prevents most research outfits from even conducting studies on the plant’s medicinal properties. Currently, only the University of Maryland has permission from the government to grow weed for research.
Twenty-five states currently allow residents to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Another four states and Washington, DC allow the drug to be used recreationally.
President Obama’s Justice Department has issued guidance to federal authorities to take a more hands-off approach to enforcing federal drug laws in states that have legalized the use of marijuana.
The loosening of marijuana laws was a topic that often came up on during the Democratic primary, with both Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) supporting reform at the federal level. Sanders called from marijuana to be completely removed from DEA schedules. Clinton claimed that she supported reclassifying the drug as a Schedule II substance, to allow more research on it.
The DEA’s decision comes in response to a 2011 petition spearheaded by the governors of Rhode Island and Washington to reclassify pot. The Department of Health and Human Services conducted a subsequent analysis on the plant, which concluded “that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision.”
Based on that study, the DEA determined that “there is no substantial evidence that marijuana should be removed from Schedule I.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) ripped the DEA’s decision. He told the Washington Post, “This decision… is further evidence that the DEA doesn’t get it. Keeping marijuana at Schedule I continues an outdated, failed approach—leaving patients and marijuana businesses trapped between state and federal laws.”
Marijuana was first placed on the Schedule I list of drugs in 1970. John Ehrlichman, a former aide to President Richard Nixon, said in recent months that this was done for political reasons: to fight “the antiwar left and black people.”
