"A Review on Cannabis Schedule I Status"

Despite the nearly century-long prohibition of the plant, cannabis is nonetheless one of the most investigated therapeutically active substances in history.
There are more than 26,000 published studies or reviews in the scientific literature referencing the cannabis plant and its cannabinoids, according to a keyword search on the search engine PubMed Central, the US government repository for peer-reviewed scientific research, with over 1,000 new studies published annually.

The scientific conclusions of the majority of modern research directly conflicts with the federal government’s stance that cannabis is a highly dangerous substance worthy of absolute criminalization.


A summary of FDA-approved randomized clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of whole-plant cannabis in various patient populations concluded that:
“Evidence is accumulating that cannabinoids may be useful medicine for certain indications.Based on evidence currently available the Schedule I classification is not tenable, it is not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking.... The classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug as well as the continuing controversy as to whether or not cannabis is of medical value are obstacles to medical progress in this area.”

More recently, a 2017 review of over 10,000 recent studies by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that: “Conclusive or substantial evidence exists in support of the clinical use of cannabis for the treatment of chronic pain and other conditions.

To date, over 140 gold-standard clinical trials exist examining the safety and efficacy of cannabis or individual cannabinoids in some 8,000 patients.
By contrast, many FDA-approved drugs are subject to far fewer clinical trials involving far fewer subjects prior to market approval. 

In fact, according to a 2014 review paper published in the 'Journal of the American Medical Association', the median number of pivotal trials performed prior to FDA drug approval is two, and over one-third of newly approved pharmaceuticals are brought to market on the basis of only a single pivotal trial. 

Source: https://norml.org/pdf_files/