Removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act in the United States is an attempt by cannabis advocates, since the early 1970s, such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to transfer cannabis from its current classification under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act through lobbying the U.S. Government. Schedule I is the most tightly restricted category, reserved for drugs which have "no currently accepted medical use".
Rescheduling proponents argue that cannabis does not meet the Controlled Substances Act's strict criteria for placement in Schedule I, and therefore the Government is required by Law either to permit medical use or to remove the drug from federal control altogether. The Government claims that cannabis is, in fact, dangerous enough to merit Schedule I status. The dispute is based on differing views on how the Act should be interpreted and what kinds of scientific evidence are most relevant to the rescheduling decision.
The Controlled Substances Act provides a process for rescheduling controlled substances by petitioning the Drug Enforcement Administration. The first petition under this process was filed in 1972 to allow cannabis to be legally prescribed by physicians. The petition was ultimately denied after 22 years of court challenges, although a pill form of cannabis' psychoactive ingredient, THC, was rescheduled in 1985 to allow prescription under schedule II. In 1999 it was again rescheduled to allow prescription under schedule III. A second petition, based on claims related to clinical studies, was denied in 2001. The most recent rescheduling petition was filed by medical cannabis advocates in 2002 and, as of May 2010, was being reviewed by the Barack Obama administration.^[1] Currently 14 states have legalized the use of medical marijuana, and hemp products are sold widely in the U.S. today