Search Results: rescheduling (55)

The Drug Enforcement Administration appeared to take a large step forward on Thursday, September 27, when it confirmed that it would reclassify Epidiolex as a Schedule V substance. The move follows Food and Drug Administration approval and classifies the marijuana-derived cannabidiol (CBD) medication under the DEA’s lowest restriction for drugs, so physicians and pharmacies can now prescribe and dispense it in all fifty states under federal law.

Despite the headlining news, the reaction in Colorado was a mixed bag, ranging from ho-hum to angry disappointment.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has denied petitions filed by two former governors and a New Mexico psychiatric nurse practitioner five years ago requesting that the DEA reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I substance, according to documents filed with the Federal Register today. But the agency did decide to end the monopoly on research into the medical benefits of the drug — a move applauded by the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

There is no word yet on when the DEA might consider rescheduling marijuana. But despite an earlier promise by the agency to make an announcement in the first half of 2016, sources now say that the agency has decided to hold off on any decision for this year, as Westword reported last week.

While the DEA made no move on rescheduling, it did announce that it will be expanding the number of places allowed to grow marijuana for research purposes. Currently, the University of Mississippi holds an exclusive contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse and has been the only facility federally licensed to grow marijuana.

“The DEA and the FDA continue to believe that scientifically valid and well-controlled clinical trials conducted under investigational new drug (IND) applications are the most appropriate way to conduct research on the medicinal uses of marijuana,” the DEA said in a statement.

Everyone wants the agency to make up its mind already.
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The DEA is reportedly in the “final stages” of deciding whether to reschedule marijuana. Cannabis Wire says the agency could reschedule CBD but not the whole plant.

The Guardian asks if Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will capitalize on the marijuana vote. “It seems that there are more political costs to being opposed to marijuana instead of being in favor of it,” Michael Berry, a political science professor at the University of Denver says. “which is strange because if you go back 10 years ago, it was just the opposite.”

Hillary Clinton and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson are more popular within the cannabis industry than in the country at large. Donald Trump is less popular.

The Islamic State magazine Dabiq writes: “The deviance carried on until the so-called “Brave New World” of America and Western Europe began legalizing marijuana, bestiality, transgenderism, sodomy, pornography, feminism, and other evils, allowing the Christian pagans of Europe, America, and Australia to break the crime record of every disbelieving nation to precede them in history.”

California REC supporters are suing opponents for using “ false and misleading language in official ballot materials.”

Anti-cannabis activist Kevin Sabet announced that his group SAM Action has raised $2M to fight this year’s crop of legalization initiatives. Marijuana.com says Sabet has consistently opposed the kinds of decriminalization measures he says he supports.

A poll suggests Florida’s MED initiative will pass, despite a reasonably well funded opposition. Before Ohio legislature legalized MED earlier this year, MPP had not raised enough money to support a statewide campaign for a more liberal ballot initiative.

The Boston Globe called for the end of an “ unfair ‘tax” on MED shops.

July was Washington state’s best ever sales month. It was also the first month after MED dispensaries closed in the state.

A promised crackdown wasn’t as bad as Detroit dispensary owners feared. (Check out photographer Dave Jordano’s shots of dispensaries in the city.)

A new program at Colorado State University-Pueblo will study legalization’s socio-economic impact.

High Times interviewed Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division chief Andrew Freedman. MJBizDaily interviewed Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D) who’s among the most weed friendly members of Congress. He predicts that in five years MED will be available in every state and REC will be available in most states.

Boston’s first dispensary opened. Delaware’s modest MED industry is growing.

Update: It’s unofficially official. A senior executive at the Drug Enforcement Administration has confirmed that the DEA will not be rescheduling marijuana in 2016, says a local attorney who spoke with him late last week. “The DEA is not going to reschedule marijuana this year … they aren’t issuing a public announcement about the change,” the attorney adds.

Many marijuana advocates — and the legislators who support them — have been hoping that the DEA would reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance. The reclassification would acknowledge that the drug holds medical value and allow for more research.

For over four decades now, advocates for the responsible use of marijuana have been fighting an uphill battle against the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. government in an attempt to get weed moved off of the Schedule I list of drugs. The goal for groups like Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is to get pot moved down to at least Schedule II, where it can be studied and prescribed more effectively.
Founded in 2002, ASA has been helping to lead the way in cannabis law reform, lending their influence and expertise to local City Council decisions, all the way up to Supreme Court cases. It is there, with the U.S. Supreme Court, that Americans for Safe Access currently finds themselves fighting for the rightful rescheduling of marijuana.

Out There Monthly

​The Spokane City Council unanimously agreed on Monday that marijuana should be federally legal to possess by people who have a legitimate medical need for the drug.

State voters passed a medical marijuana law 14 years ago, back in 1998, but the city council is concerned about federal raids continuing in Spokane and elsewhere in Washington and other states that have legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes.
The council approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing a letter that Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee sent to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in November requesting that marijuana be reclassified from being a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act, reports Jonathan Brunt at The Spokesman.

Photo: MyMedicineTheBook.com
The federal government refuses to reclassify marijuana as medicine — despite the fact that it has sent Irv Rosenfeld and a handful of other patients hundreds of joints a month for close to 30 years.

​A coalition of medical marijuana advocacy groups and patients filed suit Monday in D.C. Circuit Court to compel the Obama Administration to answer a nine-year-old petition to reclassify medical marijuana.

The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) has never received an answer to its 2002 petition, despite a formal recommendation in 2006 from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is unfortunately the final arbiter in the rescheduling process.
As recently as July 2010, the DEA issued a 54-page “Position on Marijuana,” but failed to even mention the pending CRC petition.
Plaintiffs in the case include the CRC, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Patients Out of Time, as well as individually named patients, one of whom is listed on the CRC petition but died in 2005.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has awarded a Schedule II classification for a cannabis solution.

Cannabis itself is classified under Schedule I, the same classification as heroin, and marijuana advocates have long hoped that the DEA would lessen the drug’s classification to a Schedule II. While Schedule II substances still have a high potential for abuse, dependence and addiction, there are fewer restrictions on research — an area in which cannabis and marijuana products have encountered many roadblocks.

The pharmaceutical drug company Insys waited two years for the approval of Syndros, an oral remedy containing THC; this week the DEA finally gave the okay. Syndros is approved to treat nausea and vomiting, which many cancer patients suffer during chemotherapy.

A bill introduced in the Colorado Senate last week would allow you to get weed delivered to your house. If the measure passes, dispensaries could apply for a delivery endorsement, then have an employee or approved contractor drive recreational or medical cannabis or cannabis products right to your door.

The daily purchase limits would still apply, so a single household could not receive more than one ounce of recreational flower or two ounces of medical a day. There would also be limits on residences where deliveries are allowed: Residential homes would be okay, but delivery would not be available for public spaces, dormitories, hotels or commercial businesses.

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