Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) decision not to remove marijuana as a “Schedule 1” narcotic today, thereby preventing doctors from prescribing marijuana to patients for medical use. The decision puts the federal government at odds with 25 U.S. state laws and the District of Columbia.
“The DEA’s refusal to reclassify marijuana to permit medical use is a cruel decision that ignores the suffering of patients who find well-documented relief in medical cannabis products. It also shows a profound disregard for where the medical community and the American public stand on the issue. Medical decisions should be made between a patient and his or her doctor–not the government.
The DEA’s policy perpetuates the nonsensical divergence between state and federal medical marijuana policies. The DEA should be spending its limited resources on targeting high priority narcotics rather than erecting roadblocks to medical marijuana.”
