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Along with the Coalition to Reschedule Cannabis (CRC), ASA has filed a lawsuit in the Federal Circuit Court for the unreasonable delay in responding to a petition calling for the rescheduling of cannabis. CRC filed this petition with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 2002, which the DEA immediately sent to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for research.

ASA just recently discovered that the HHS secretly issued its findings to the DEA in 2006. The HHS reported to the DEA that cannabis has no medical value and should remain on the list of Schedule I drugs, even though there is a significant amount of research that says otherwise. In fact, the National Cancer Institute, which is under HHS’ authority, recently released a new section of its Web site detailing the benefits of cannabis provides for cancer patients. This clearly contradicts the findings the HHS reported to the DEA in 2006.

If the court rules in ASA’s favor, the DEA will be forced to make a final decision about whether or not to reschedule cannabis. Winning this court case would be a marker of success for the Reclassify Campaign because not only will we get a response about the reclassification of cannabis, but it will also establish precedence for what an unreasonable delay is, affecting other delay issues in the movement.

This lawsuit is a significant step in ASA’s campaign to reschedule cannabis.

View the Original Petition

View the Writ of Mandamus

View Background Information