Many states rejoiced since marijuana became legal in their hometowns, but today the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) denied 2 petitions to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Marijuana has helped various people with health issues through the years, which is why advocates wanted the DEA to reclassify the drug as not dangerous, but the government says it will remain a Schedule I drug, sharing the same classification as heroin and LSD.
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“Marijuana remains a Schedule 1 controlled substance because it does not meet the criteria for currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, there is a lack of accepted safety for its use under medical supervision, and it has a high potential for abuse,” the DEA said in a statement.
States where marijuana is legal were criticized and compared to “meth houses” since some sell it recreationally and others are patients that use medical grade marijuana.
People are outraged by the DEA’s decision. “We just have to deschedule the DEA,” Tommy Chong tells The Hollywood Reporter. “They’re trying to criminalize probably the safest medicine on the planet.”
Advocates of medical marijuana argue that marijuana is regulated, supervised and prescribed by medical doctors, unlike recreational marijuana, which is why they don’t think the DEA understands the value of the drug.
By leaving the drug at the Schedule I classification, the DEA is saying that they don’t accept the medical use because it has a high potential for abuse.
There’s still hope if the US Food and Drug Administration approves a marijuana-based drug because then the DEA will be forced to reevaluate the drug’s classification.