Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Marijuana Law Reform
Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 12:00 pm | By: Lynnette
Thank you for contacting me regarding the legalization of marijuana use.Current federal law prohibits the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of marijuana, whether it be for medical, recreational, or other uses, as it is currently classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substance Act. Schedule I drugs have been found to have “high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States,” as well as lack of “accepted safety for use of the drug.under medical supervision.”
In 1995, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was petitioned to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I controlled substances. The DEA requested the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for a scientific and medical evaluation of the abuse potential of marijuana and a scheduling recommendation. Based on the results of the study, HHS concluded in 2001 that marijuana satisfies the requirements to continue to be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance and recommended that DEA not reclassify it, and DEA complied with that recommendation.
In April 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an inter-agency advisory that stated in part “there is currently sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful” and that a past HHS study concluded “no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use.”
According to the Congressional Research Service, in October 2002, the DEA received another petition to reclassify marijuana, and HHS is in the process of reviewing and evaluating all of the publicly available peer-reviewed literature on the medicinal efficacy of marijuana in that context.
As you may know, several bills have been introduced this Congress that would ultimately legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. These bills have been referred to several committees of jurisdiction for further study regarding the science. As your Representative in Congress, be assure that I have noted your comments and will keep them in mind should legislation regarding the legalization of marijuana come to the House floor for a vote.
Thanks again for contacting me on issues of importance to you.
Sincerely,
Kevin McCarthy
Member of Congress
Truly Brent, we live in a world where up is down and right is blue….
Its like they all have form letters they send out they all say the same dam thing over and over. All my legislators wrote me the same stupid reasons. Its all crazy, they say Meth is a scedule two and so we are told that marijuana is worse at scedule one, worse than Meth? They are all nutz!
Its funny that mariuana is the most medicaly active plant on earth but its considered to have no medical value? Yeh no value to their pockets in fact a loss to their pockets and thats why they dont want anything to change!