WASHINGTON — The Obama
administration will keep marijuana on the list of the most dangerous
drugs, despite growing popular support for legalization, but will allow
more research into its possible medical benefits, the Drug Enforcement
Administration announced Thursday.
The DEA said the agency
opted not to reclassify marijuana after a lengthy review and
consultation with the Health and Human Services Department, which said
marijuana "has a high potential for abuse" and "no accepted medical
use."
"We are tethered to science and bound by statute," DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said Thursday.
The decision to keep
marijuana in the same class of drugs as heroin and peyote comes amid
growing national support for the legalization of marijuana. More than
half the states have legalized the drug for either medicinal or
recreational use.
The DEA said it plans to
make it easier for researchers to study marijuana's possible medical
benefits by expanding the number of entities that can legally grow
marijuana for research purposes.
Currently only researchers
at the University of Mississippi are allowed to grow marijuana, as part
of a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Allowing for further
research is the latest step forward in the federal government's evolving
position on marijuana, although legalization advocates claim it doesn't
go far enough.
The DEA's latest review of
marijuana's classification was prompted by requests from the former
governors of Rhode Island and Washington. They requested that marijuana
be considered a Schedule II drug, along with cocaine, morphine and
opium.
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