DEA Removes Marijuana Misinformation from Website After Months of Public, Legal Pressure
WASHINGTON, DC After months of public pressure, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has removed factually inaccurate information from its website.
The change comes after Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis for therapeutic use and research, filed a legal request with the Department of Justice last year demanding that the DEA immediately update and remove factually inaccurate information about cannabis from their website and materials.
Americans for Safe Access argued that the more than 25 false statements on the DEAs website about cannabis constituted a violation of the Information Quality Act (IQA, aka Data Quality Act) which requires that administrative agencies not provide false information to the public and that they respond to requests for correction of information within 60 days.
One publication, Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana, contained 23 of the 25 factual inaccuracies in violation of the Information Quality Act. Such inaccuracies included claims that cannabis was a gateway drug, caused irreversible cognitive decline in adults, and contributed to psychosis and lung cancer.
The DEAs removal of these popular myths about cannabis from their website could mean the end of the Washington gridlock said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access. This is a victory for medical cannabis patients across the nation, who rely on cannabis to treat serious illnesses. The federal government now admits that cannabis is not a gateway drug, and doesnt cause long-term brain damage, or psychosis. While the fight to end stigma around cannabis is far from over, this is a big first step.
But the fight is not over. As of February 13th, the government is one week beyond the required deadline to respond to the Americans for Safe Access legal petition and the group claims that the DEA is still spreading false information about cannabis.
We are pleased that in the face of our request the DEA withdrew some of the damaging misinformation from its website said Vickie Feeman, of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. However, the DEA continues to disseminate many damaging facts about the health risks of medical cannabis and patients across the country face ongoing harm as a result of these alternative facts. We are hopeful the DEA will also remove the remaining statements rather than continue to mislead the public in the face of the scientifically proven benefits of medical cannabis.
If the DEA does not take the necessary action to comply with the binding time lines in the IQA, petitioners can always seek an intervention by OMB as the Department of Justice so informed the court in W. Harkonen v. USDOJ or in the courts as demonstrated in Prime Time v. USDA stated Jim Tozzi, the father of the Information Quality Act and member of ASAs Patient Focused Certification Reviewboard.
Americans for Safe Access argues that correcting ...
