USDA Database Describes Marijuana As ‘Medicinal’ Even As Federal Government Keeps It In Schedule I
Marijuana Moment reports, “While the U.S. government still officially considers marijuana a Schedule I drug with no accepted medical use, federal agencies are increasingly breaking with that position. In one notable example, an entry in a Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant database describes the use of Cannabis sativa as having “medicinal” uses.”
Kat Murti, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, told Marijuana Moment that the group is “glad to see the USDA coming to the same conclusion as the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Medical Student Association, American Osteopathic Association, American Preventive Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences Institute Of Medicine (IOM), the National Association for Public Health Policy, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).”
“Marijuana is medicine. It is legally recommended for medical use to close to 5 million Americans by around 30,000 doctors in 38 states and the District of Columbia,” she said, pointing to comments SSDP filed in the ongoing rescheduling process. “Marijuana absolutely does not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and it is a legal farce that flies in face of both scientific evidence and accepted practice that it has remained there for so long.”
