Marijuana Federal Reclassification

Marijuana has been an illegal Schedule I drug since 1970. But on Monday, Oct. 27, a judge in the Eastern District of California heard testimony regarding this classification’s constitutionality and potentially could bring about a marijuana federal reclassification.

In a highly unusual move, Judge Kimberly J. Mueller granted the evidentiary hearing on a motion challenging the statute in April and set a date in September.

Three medical experts have given testimony that modern scientific evidence has rendered the Schedule I ruling unconstitutional as the drug is not as threatening it has been made out to be.

Doctors Gregory Carter, MD and Carl Hart, Ph.D. testified that marijuana is one of the safest therapeutic substances, and Philip Denny, MD backed up those claims.

Bertha Madras, Ph.D. and former deputy Drug Czar under President George W. Bush argued on behalf of the government that cannabis fails to measure up as medicine, equating the drug to heroin, as humans no longer smoke it for pain relief.

Hearings are currently on the schedule through Oct. 29 and a decision could come by the end of the week.