A.G. Gancarski
There were multiple reports Thursday that the DEA is going to consider moving cannabis off of Schedule 1 this year, where it now resides with heroin.
In Jacksonville, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was asked by FloridaPolitics.com about his dispensation toward this move.
Spoiler alert: He did not commit to a position.
Surgeon General Murthy said that “science” needs to drive policy changes on cannabis scheduling, even as he noted that marijuana has been a topic of interest in recent years.
While he’s “happy to see the NIH” and other groups “investigating” the potential efficacy of therapeutic cannabis, and is glad that the DEA is “looking into this issue,” “we don’t have enough scientific evidence” to say whether cannabis is “safe” or not for therapeutic purposes.
(His spokesman said, in a subsequent email, “What he’s not saying is that the science is out on whether or not cannabis is safe for recreational purposes. We have enough science on cannabis to know that there are proven harmful health effects.”)
Many have said, of course, that a barrier to real research, as happens in Israel, is the scheduling of cannabis in the most dangerous category of banned drugs on the federal level.
The DEA is considering rescheduling, even as the head of the DEA has described medical marijuana as “a joke.” An answer is expected by midyear.
It sounds, however, like such is not a priority for this Surgeon General. And, presumably, the Obama administration.
