By Marijuana Moment (AP)
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested public input on the international classification of marijuana and other drugs in October 2018. Well, ask and you shall receive.
More than 20,000 people submitted comments ahead of the Oct. 31, 2018 deadline. And about half of those were gathered and hand-delivered to FDA headquarters by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which created an online tool to streamline comments.
That’s about how many comments the organization delivered in April 2018, in response to a similar FDA open comment period on cannabis.
The organization posted a video of the new delivery on Facebook.
“The sooner these supposedly ‘fact-based’ bureaucracies acknowledge the actual realities of marijuana’s effects, widespread medical uses and very low potential for abuse, the sooner we will end the criminalization of cannabis.”
Another 10,591 comments were submitted online via the federal regulations.gov portal.
Altogether, the comments are aimed at informing the United States’ position on drug scheduling requirements under international treaties that prohibit member countries from legalizing cannabis. Marijuana is currently included in the most restrictive category under international treaties, similar to its placement in Schedule I under U.S. law.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is actively reviewing the global scheduling system to see whether it should be amended. In August 2018, the WHO determined that one ingredient in cannabis, CBD, was a relatively safe and therapeutic substance that doesn’t deserve to be scheduled under international treaties.
While the comments from this round varied somewhat in terms of how each individual framed his or her argument, the vast majority published so far seem to be supportive of either loosening or eliminating international restrictions on marijuana.
