Editor’s Note: Our apologies to the “Patients Out of Time” for calling them the “People out of time” in our previous issue.
Our apologies for the typo.
Keep up the good work!

On October 9th, 2002 Patients Out of Time, in conjunction with The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, filed a rescheduling petition with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States. The Coalition is only concerned with the use of existing federal laws and procedures for assessing the legal and scientific justification of the scheduling of cannabis under the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

The Coalition has advanced a detailed scientific argument that marijuana has an accepted medical use in the U.S., is safe for use under medical supervision, and has both a lower dependency liability and potential for abuse than drugs such as cocaine and metamphetamine. The Coalition argues that cannabis does not meet criteria for either schedule l or ll drugs, and that the scientific record supports the rescheduling of cannabis

to schedule lll or a less restrictive schedule. The Coalition challenges the DEA determination that cannabis has no medical value in the U.S.; that cannabis is addictive; that cannabis is a toxic substance.

The DEA, by its own rules, must accept or reject the petition. If accepted, the DEA must study the petition’s text, references and any other material deemed important to the subject matter of the petition. While the petition is expected to be accepted by the agency, there is no definitive timetable by which the DEA must act to resolve the request.

Patients Out of Time recommends that you read the entire text of the petition. It is an excellent and complete recapitulation of therapeutic cannabis research world-wide to date. It is very readable for the layman and meant to be used as a teaching tool and reference source to be circulated widely for U.S., Canadian and European patient advocates. The complete text is at www.drugscience.org

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