The coalition filed a petition to seek rescheduling in 2002. In July 2011, the DEA turned down the petition (after the CRC had to sue the DEA for unreasonable delay. In January 2012, the ASA filed a brief to challenge the DEA's ruling of the CRC petition.
http://marijuanaknowledge.info/nomoredrugwar/blog/history/00000660.html
"By ignoring the wealth of scientific evidence that clearly shows the therapeutic value of marijuana, the Obama Administration is playing politics at the expensive of sick and dying Americans," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the appeal Thursday.
"For the first time in more than 15 years we will be able to present evidence in court to challenge the government's flawed position on medical marijuana," Elford said.
Although two other rescheduling petitions have been filed since the establishment of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, the merits of medical efficacy were reviewed only once by the courts in 1994.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=6440
-you can also view the original petition at this link above.
Along with the Coalition to Reschedule Cannabis (CRC), ASA has filed a lawsuit in the Federal Circuit Court for the unreasonable delay in responding to a petition calling for the rescheduling of cannabis. CRC filed this petition with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 2002, which the DEA immediately sent to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for research.
ASA just recently discovered that the HHS secretly issued its findings to the DEA in 2006. The HHS reported to the DEA that cannabis has no medical value and should remain on the list of Schedule I drugs, even though there is a significant amount of research that says otherwise. In fact, the National Cancer Institute, which is under HHS’ authority, recently released a new section of its Web site detailing the benefits of cannabis provides for cancer patients. This clearly contradicts the findings the HHS reported to the DEA in 2006.
If the court rules in ASA’s favor, the DEA will be forced to make a final decision about whether or not to reschedule cannabis. Winning this court case would be a marker of success for the Reclassify Campaign because not only will we get a response about the reclassification of cannabis, but it will also establish precedence for what an unreasonable delay is, affecting other delay issues in the movement.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2012/jul/30/medical_marijuana_rescheduling_l
Oral arguments will take place Tuesday, October 16, at 9:30am at the E. Barrett Prettyman US Courthouse in downtown Washington.
A decade after the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) filed its petition seeking to have marijuana moved from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the federal courts will finally review the scientific evidence regarding the therapeutic efficacy of marijuana. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals announced late last week that it will hear oral arguments in October in a lawsuit filed by Americans for Safe Access (ASA) to force the government to act.
The lawsuit, Americans for Safe Access vs. DEA, was filed in January after the DEA denied the CRC's rescheduling petition the previous July. The DEA took nine years to decide to do nothing about rescheduling marijuana.
here's a history of previous rescheduling attempts -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_cannabis_from_Schedule_I_of_the_Controlled_Substances_Act
The desired outcome is to move marijuana from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule 1 drugs have no medical benefit. This case wants to present evidence of medical benefit in order to move marijuana to Schedule 2 or lesser (Schedule 2 would make it possible for doctors to prescribe and make it possible to do research more easily. Meth is Schedule 2 - i.e. considered less dangerous than marijuana.)
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