The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is moving to deschedule a controlled substance that\u2019s derived from cocaine after receiving a petition for the policy change.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of action that drug policy reform advocates have hoped to see from the agency for Schedule I drugs like marijuana and psilocybin. But for now, DEA is proposing to remove the cocaine derivative from Schedule II and fully remove criminal and civil penalties associated with the compound.<\/p>\n
In a notice published in the Federal Register last week, the agency noted that the drug, [18 F]FP-CIT, is employed as \u201ca diagnostic substance that is used in assisting the evaluation of adult patients with suspected Parkinsonian syndromes\u201d and is used in the \u201cvisualization of striatal dopamine transporters (DAT) using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging.\u201d<\/p>\n
The descheduling petition was submitted by Advanced Imaging Projects in June 2018. Several federal agencies were involved in processing the application before determining that the substance should be fully removed from control.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sign that the scheduling review process can result in changes, even if it\u2019s onerous and takes years to complete. But that process so far hasn\u2019t served advocates who\u2019ve repeatedly petitioned DEA to fully remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) or to merely reschedule it on the basis that it has medical value and low abuse potential. Those petitions have been summarily denied, despite lawsuits challenging the agency\u2019s decisions<\/a>.<\/p>\n In any case, the new notice\u2014which is subject to a public comment period<\/a> that ends on December 6\u2014outlines the steps that needed to happen before the government amends a drug schedule.<\/p>\n DEA first accepted the petition for the cocaine derivative in November 2018. After that point, DEA spent several months collecting information before forwarding their findings and the petition to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in May 2019. They sent a \u201crequest for scientific and medical evaluation and scheduling recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n HHS finally offered its recommendation, which was made in concert with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in April 2021, concluding that the substance \u201cdoes not conform with the findings for schedule II\u2026 or in any other schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s in spite of the fact that HHS determined that the derivative \u201cappears to be more potent than cocaine in some behavioral assessments\u201d with respect to its affinity for dopamine transporters. FP-CIT \u201cmay potentially have abuse potential if the dose taken is high enough and if the deterrent effect of the extremely low concentration of the available radioligand is not considered,\u201d the notice states.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on FDA\u2019s scientific and medical review\u2026and findings related to the substance\u2019s abuse potential, legitimate medical use, and dependence liability, HHS recommended that [18 F]FP-CIT be removed from all schedules of the CSA,\u201d DEA said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe CSA requires DEA, as delegated by the Attorney General, to determine whether HHS\u2019s scientific and medical evaluation, scheduling recommendation, and all other relevant data constitute substantial evidence that a substance should be scheduled. 21 U.S.C. 811(b). DEA reviewed the scientific and medical evaluation and scheduling recommendation provided by HHS, and all other relevant data, and completed its own eight-factor review document on [18 F]FP-CIT pursuant to 21 U.S.C. 811(c).\u201d<\/p>\n The eight factors that HHS considered in its review are: 1) the drug\u2019s actual or relative potential for abuse, 2) scientific evidence of the drug\u2019s pharmacological effects, 3) current scientific evidence about the drug, 4) the substance\u2019s history and current patterns of abuse, 5) the scope, duration and significance of abuse, 6) any risks to public health, 7) psychic or physiological dependence risk and 8) whether the substance is an \u201cimmediate precursor of a substance already controlled under the CSA.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBased on consideration of the scientific and medical evaluation and accompanying recommendation of HHS, and based on DEA\u2019s consideration of its own eight-factor analysis, DEA finds that these facts and all relevant data demonstrate that [18 F]FP-CIT does not possess abuse or dependence potential,\u201d the notice concludes. \u201cDEA finds that [18 F]FP-CIT does not meet the requirements for inclusion in any schedule, and should be removed from control under the CSA.\u201d<\/p>\n With respect to marijuana, a federal appeals court in August dismissed a petition to require the DEA to reevaluate the plant\u2019s scheduling under the CSA. However, one judge did say in a concurring opinion that the agency may soon be forced to consider a policy change<\/a> anyway based on a misinterpretation of the therapeutic value of marijuana.<\/p>\n In 2018, DEA placed the marijuana-derived drug Epidiolex in Schedule V<\/a> of the CSA. The medication contains purified CBD, a non-psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. In 2020, DEA followed up by clarifying that the drug was no longer considered a federal controlled substance<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Time To End The \u2018Aura Of Illegality\u2019 For Drugs, Top Federal Health Official Says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Dominic Milton Trott<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post DEA Moves To Deschedule Cocaine-Derived Drug While Marijuana Lingers In Schedule I<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is moving to deschedule a controlled substance that\u2019s derived from cocaine after receiving a petition for the policy change. It\u2019s the kind of action that drug policy reform advocates have hoped to see from the agency for Schedule I drugs like marijuana and psilocybin. ButContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51096,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095\/revisions\/51096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: DEA Moves To Deschedule Cocaine-Derived Drug While Marijuana Lingers In Schedule I<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"