DEA removes anti-cannabis arguments from its website

A document that had put the DEA in the spotlight for spreading misinformation about the Health Effects of Cannabis has disappeared from the agency's website.

Since Monday, «The Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana Abuse,» a 45-page document on the various aspects of cannabis use is no longer available on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's website.

Last year, the document was at the center of a petition launched by the association Americans for Safe Access alleging that the DEA’s publication of «scientifically inaccurate information about the health effects of medical cannabis» had directly influenced «Congress’s actions—and inaction.».

In December, the organization advocating for medical cannabis claimed that the inclusion of 25 false statements on the DEA’s website conflicted with the Data Quality Act, a document that ensures the quality, objectivity, usefulness, and integrity of the information that national agencies provide to the public.

Some of these claims (that cannabis plays a significant role in psychosis, that cannabis use causes tumors in the head, neck, and lungs, or that cannabis is a gateway to hard drugs and heroin addiction) had have been contradicted by the DEA itself in August 2016, when it refused to remove cannabis from the list of harmful substances.

«The DEA’s removal of these popular myths about cannabis from its website could signal the end of the federal ban on cannabis,» explained Steph Sherer, executive director of the ASA. «This is a victory for patients treated with medical cannabis across the country who rely on cannabis to treat their serious illnesses.».

This will at least be one more argument for the organizations advocating for a change in cannabis law in France, and in response to whom their critics keep harping on the “gateway drug” theory—the idea that cannabis use leads to more dangerous substances—an argument that, however, taken apart time and time again.

Via TheCannabist