Many people don’t know that it is illegal for federal agencies to disseminate incorrect information. But when it comes to medical cannabis, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been doing this for years -- and politicians use this misinformation to justify opposition to medical cannabis laws.  

Federal and state lawmakers utilize DEA information on cannabis to make decisions regarding their stance on medical cannabis legislation. That’s why we constantly see politicians using the DEA’s claims about the gateway theory, long-term brain damage, and psychosis to deny support for medical cannabis.

This has real impact on the patients and families around the country who use medical cannabis to treat their illness. People like Christine, who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor and needs medical cannabis to help control her constant pain, nausea, and a host of other symptoms.  While advocating in her home state of Utah, legislators often bring up this misinformation as a way to keep legislation from moving forward.

In December, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis for therapeutic use and research, filed a petition with the Department of Justice demanding that the DEA immediately update misinformation about cannabis.

The DEA has actually admitted that the theories that cannabis use leads to harder drugs (gateway theory), long-term brain damage, psychosis, and other alleged harms, are not based in scientific fact, and yet they keep distributing this false information. Yet we have found 25 instances of these false claims on their website.

Forcing the DEA to correct this misinformation would give medical cannabis patients and the families the ability to say, unequivocally, “That is not based in scientific fact, and the DEA has admitted that as well,” effectively removing these falsehoods from the conversation.

Please sign and share this petition asking the President to instruct the DEA to correct the information immediately.