Court rejects bid to change marijuana’s classification

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected a petition to reclassify marijuana from its current federal status as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use.

The appeals court panel denied the bid from three medical marijuana groups, including Americans for Safe Access, and several individuals. In 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration had rejected a petition by medical marijuana advocates to change the classification.

In his majority opinion Tuesday, Judge Harry T. Edwards wrote that the question wasn’t whether marijuana could have some medical benefits, but rather whether the DEA’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious.” The court concluded that the DEA action survived a review under that standard.

In the federal system, marijuana is classified as a controlled substance, with a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use, together with drugs like heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

The court noted that the DEA denied the petition after the Department of Health and Human Services gave the DEA its evaluation that marijuana lacks a currently accepted medical use.

DEA regulations define “currently accepted medical use” to require, among other things, “adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy.”

Americans for Safe Ac- cess cited more than 200 peer-reviewed published studies demonstrating marijuana’s efficacy for various medical uses, including a 1999 study by the respected Institute of Medicine, a government adviser on health issues.

“The IOM report does indeed suggest that marijuana might have medical benefits,” the court conceded. “However, the DEA fairly construed this report as calling for ‘more and better studies to determine potential medical applications of marijuana’ and not as sufficient proof of medical efficacy itself.”

Those challenging the government “have not pointed to ‘adequate and well-controlled studies’ confirming the efficacy of marijuana for medicinal uses,” the court found.

Joe Elford, chief counsel with Americans for Safe Access, said that his group will likely seek a rehearing, and failing that, would go before the full appeals court. If that isn’t successful, he said that the group would probably appeal to the Supreme Court.