A medical marijuana group filed a petition on Friday with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asking for do-over on a key ruling in the fight to reclassify the drug as safe for medical use.
As Americans for Safe Access acknowledged in its court filing, such re-hearings are “extraordinary and rarely granted.” That means the next stop in the long-running battle against the Drug Enforcement Agency could be the Supreme Court, setting up a high court battle over patients’ right to get high.
In January the D.C. Circuit held that Michael Krawitz, an Air Force veteran denied access to Veterans Administration benefits because he wanted to be able to use medical marijuana, could sue the DEA over its failure to reschedule marijuana as a drug that does have some medical uses.
But while Krawitz could sue, the court said, he wouldn’t win: discounting two-hundred peer-reviewed studies cited by the plaintiffs, it rejected Krawitz and Americans for Safe Access’ lawsuit on the merits. The court said that in order to reschedule marijuana, the DEA would have to conduct FDA-style drug trials.
– Read the entire article at The Huffington Post.
