After leaking news that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department was recommending marijuana be moved to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act, the agency released a series of documents related both to its recommendation and to the detailed analysis it conducted on cannabis’s accepted medicinal value.
Among newly released materials are correspondence between HHS officials and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Administrator Anne Milgram, as well as explanations from the health agency for its recommended change following a required 8-factor analysis in accordance with the CSA. The majority of pages have been heavily redacted and others are completely withheld.
Attorneys Shane Pennington, Matt Zorn and coauthors of On Drugs blog posted the documents online on Thursday. Zorn had previously requested the records under the Freedom of Information Act.
The two attorneys wrote that they had not yet had the chance to go through everything, but are posting it here and will follow-up as soon as they have studied it more thoroughly.
HHS released only two pages, in full, as a response to the FOIA Request. Two hundred and thirty-six pages were partially redacted, while fourteen pages were completely withheld. The documents released are all embedded in this article.
The documents, in general, outline the new scientific information which has been revealed over the past few years following an earlier rejection of a petition for rescheduling. HHS believes that this may now be necessary to reschedule marijuana.
The current review focuses on the latest scientific evidence on marijuana’s CAMU (currently accepted medical uses) and the new epidemiological data on marijuana abuse in the years following the HHS 2015 evaluation of marijuana using the CSA eight-factor analysis.
HHS notes it also “analyzed considerable data related the abuse potential of cannabis,” but adds that it is a complex consideration.
HHS stated that “determining the abuse potential of any substance is complex and involves many factors. No single test or assessment can provide a complete description.” No single test or assessment can accurately determine abuse potential.
The document was omitted from the rest of its pages.
In a letter sent to Zorn, HHS’s director for FOIA litigations and appeals stated that sections of the documents were redacted in accordance with a FOIA provision that excludes “intra agency memorandums” or “letters that are not available to any party in litigation other than the agency.”
HHS released , a heavily redacted version, of a one-page letter sent by the health agency to the DEA, in October. This was done to respond to requests for public records from news organizations like Marijuana Moment, and lawyers such as Zorn.
Below you will find a collection of HHS documents that have just been released.
DEA Threatens Georgia Pharmacies Over Dispensing Medical Marijuana Under State Law
Photo by Philip Steffan.
The post Feds Release Over 250 Pages Of Redacted Documents Detailing Cannabis’s Medical Value first appeared on Marijuana Minute.
