The DEA wont reschedule cannabis.
Cannabis will remain a Schedule 1 drug, alongside heroin and LSD. Yarygin/Shutterstock

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is disappointing cannabis advocates this week, claiming there's not enough evidence that the drug has medical value and refusing to reschedule it.

Today, cannabis is listed in Schedule 1, the same category as heroin, with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." Meanwhile, 25 states have approved cannabis for medical use.

"This decision isn't based on danger," Drug Enforcement Administration head Chuck Rosenberg told NPR. "This decision is based on whether marijuana, as determined by the FDA, is a safe and effective medicine and it's not."


Of course, part of the reason there's so little research into the benefits of medical marijuana is because of federal restrictions on the drug. Today, only one university can grow cannabis for research use.

That's where there's good news today: The feds plan to allow more schools to grow the plant for research.

From the New York Times:

For years, the University of Mississippi has been the only institution authorized to grow the drug for use in medical studies. This restriction has so limited the supply of marijuana federally approved for research purposes that scientists said it could often take years to obtain it and in some cases it was impossible to get. But soon the Drug Enforcement Administration will allow other universities to apply to grow marijuana, three government officials said.

While 25 states have approved the medical use of marijuana for a growing list of conditions, including Parkinson’s, Crohn’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, Alzheimer’s, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, the research to back up many of those treatments is thin. The new policy could begin to change that.

“It will create a supply of research-grade marijuana that is diverse, but more importantly, it will be competitive and you will have growers motivated to meet the demand of researchers,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.