"The DEA: Four Decades of Impeding And Rejecting Science"

The title of this post is the title of this notable new report from the Drug Policy Alliance.  Here is an excerpt from the report's executive summary:

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is charged with enforcing federal drug laws. Under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, its powers include the authority to schedule drugs (alongside other federal agencies) and to license facilities for the production and use of scheduled drugs in federally-approved research. Those powers are circumscribed by a statute that requires the agency to make its determinations based on scientific data.

The case studies compiled in this report illustrate a decades-long pattern of behavior that demonstrates the agency's inability to exercise its responsibilities in a fair and impartial manner or to act in accord with the scientific evidence – often as determined by its Administrative Law Judges.

The following case studies are included in this report:

• DEA Obstructs Marijuana Rescheduling: Part One, 1973-1994
• DEA Overrules Administrative Law Judge to Classify MDMA as Schedule I, 1985
• DEA Obstructs Marijuana Rescheduling: Part Two, 1995-2001
• DEA Overrules Administrative Law Judge to Protect Federal Monopoly on Marijuana for Research, 2001-2013
• DEA Obstructs Marijuana Rescheduling: Part Three, 2002-2013

These case studies reveal a number of DEA practices that work to maintain the existing, scientifically unsupported drug scheduling system and to obstruct research that might alter current drug schedules.