Feds won't reclassify marijuana; will allow research

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration has decided marijuana will remain on the list of most dangerous drugs, fully rebuffing growing support across the country for broad legalization, but said it will allow more research into its medical uses.

The decision to expand research into marijuana's medical potential could pave the way for the drug to be moved to a lesser category.

Heroin, peyote and marijuana, among others, are considered Schedule I drugs because they have no medical application.

Cocaine and opiates, for example, have medical uses and, while still illegal for recreational use, are designated Schedule II drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration said the agency's decision came 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."

The decision means pot will remain illegal for any purpose under federal law, despite laws in 25 states and the District of Columbia that have legalized pot for medicinal or recreational use.

Advocates long have pushed for the federal government to follow suit.

"If the scientific understanding about marijuana changes -- and it could change -- then the decision could change," DEA acting administrator Chuck Rosenberg wrote in a letter to the governors of Rhode Island and Washington, who sought the review of marijuana's classification in 2011. "But we will remain tethered to science, as we must, and as the statute demands. It certainly would be odd to rely on science when it suits us and ignore it otherwise."

Rosenberg said designating marijuana a Schedule I drug does not necessarily mean it is as dangerous as other drugs.

"It is best not to think of drug scheduling as an escalating 'danger' scale -- rather, specific statutory criteria (based on medical and scientific evidence) determine into which schedule a substance is placed," Rosenberg wrote.

The Food and Drug Administration said agency officials reviewed more than 500 studies on the use of medical marijuana, identifying only 11 that met the agency standards for "legitimate testing." For various reasons, none of the trials demonstrated "an accepted medical use," the agency concluded.

The FDA last evaluated marijuana for medical use in 2006 and said in its latest review the available research "has progressed," but does not meet federal standards of safety or effectiveness.

While the DEA won't reclassify marijuana, the agency announced plans to make it easier for researchers to study pot's possible medical benefits by expanding the number of entities that can grow marijuana legally 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.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the DEA's decision "is keeping federal laws behind the times."

"The DEA's decision flies in the face of choices made freely by voters in Oregon and many other states about the legality of marijuana," he said. Oregon legalized pot last year.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said he was disappointed with the DEA's ruling, but his state would continue "to maintain a well-regulated adult-use marijuana system and continue to allow patients to have access for necessary medicinal purposes."

The Obama administration's position on marijuana started to ease in earnest in 2013 when the Justice Department notified Colorado and Washington, the first two states to legalize pot for recreational use and sales, it would not interfere with state laws as long as the drug was kept out of the hands of children, off the black market and away from federal property.

Advocates saw that policy statement as the first step to an end of the federal prohibition of marijuana.

But that hope was diminished quickly as administration officials, including the head of the White House-run Office of National Drug Control Policy, repeatedly said publicly they still considered marijuana a dangerous drug that had no place in the legal market.