Researchers applaud health officials ’ push to ease marijuana restrictions

Federal health officials are urging the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to loosen its restrictions on marijuana—a move that could make it easier for researchers to study the drug’s potential medical benefits and harms. Following a review initiated by the White House in 2022 , the U.S. Department of Human Health and Services (HHS) this week recommended that DEA reclassify marijuana from its Schedule I category, which includes drugs considered to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted therapeutic value, such as heroin and LSD, to the lower risk Schedule III. If implemented, the policy change could relax lengthy licensing procedures and handling restrictions that scientists say have hampered much-needed research. “This is a really unprecedented situation,” says biopsychologist Ziva Cooper, director of the Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids at the University of California (UC), Los Angeles. Nearly half of U.S. states have legalized recreational marijuana, and medicinal use is permitted in many more . Now, after decades of resisting calls from scientists and activists to reschedule the drug, DEA faces new pressure to do so. The HHS recommendation, sent to DEA in a letter first reported by Bloomberg News , would place marijuana in the same category as ketamine and anabolic steroids, which are used in health care settings and can be obtained with a presc...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news