Weed smokers hopes of the Feds legalizing marijuana have been put out once again. The Drug Enforcement Administration announced it will keep marijuana illegal for any purpose.
USA Today reports:
Marijuana will remain a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act. Substances in Schedule 1 are determined by the Food and Drug Administration to have no medical use. States that allow marijuana for medical use or legalize recreational use remain in defiance of federal law.
The announcement to be published Friday in the Federal Register relaxes the rules for marijuana research to make it easier for institutions to grow marijuana for scientific study. The DEA currently authorizes just one grow facility in Mississippi.
In reaching its conclusion, the DEA said a Health and Human Services evaluation shows marijuana has no ‘‘currently accepted medical use’’ because “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.”
“There is no evidence that there is a consensus among qualified experts that marijuana is safe and effective for use in treating a specific, recognized disorder,” the report added.
“At this time,” the DEA concluded, “the known risks of marijuana use have not been shown to be outweighed by specific benefits in well-controlled clinical trials that scientifically evaluate safety and efficacy.”
If you live in a state where weed is legalized, you don’t have too much to worry about. While federal laws do indeed trump state laws, the Feds have not been actively cracking down on people smoking weed. They will however consider being more forceful if they see usage becoming a “problem.”
The DEA report also said that while they still feel that weed can be addictive, they do not consider it a “gateway drug.”
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