American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) received the Patient Partnership Award from Americans for Safe Access
(ASA) on Oct. 16. AHPA was honored with the award after developing
recommendations for medical cannabis regulation. In 2010, AHPA formed a
cannabis committee to establish responsible commercial guidelines, and
it has since worked closely with ASA.

ASA executive director Steph Sherer presented AHPA president
Michael McGuffin with the honor at ASA’s 10th anniversary dinner and
awards ceremony in Washington.

"AHPA has been working closely with ASA over the past year to
identify issues that need to be addressed to ensure safe patient access
to medical cannabis in the states where its use is allowed under state
law," McGuffin said. "Sherer has provided invaluable insight to AHPA’s
understanding of these issues and has been instrumental in organizing
this community."

More than 10 years after it was initially filed, the latest petition to remove marijuana from Schedule I
of the Controlled Substances Act is finally giving the herb its day in
court. The current classification lumps cannabis in with drugs such as
heroin, LSD and mescaline.

The District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments
this week in the case of Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement
Administration, providing an opening for medical marijuana reform
advocates to challenge the conventional law enforcement contention that
marijuana has a

While D.C. officials wait for six firms to grow medical marijuana in warehouses less than five miles from the White House, the role of cannabis in American life is taking center stage in political and legal bouts across the country.

The
city government is treading warily in its implementation of the
program, which voters approved in a 1998 referendum before congressional
interference and painstaking rule-making delayed it for more than a
decade. But the long-awaited debut of cultivation centers and
dispensaries in the District

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
ignored research showing marijuana had legitimate medical uses when it
rejected efforts to reclassify the drug as a less harmful substance last
year, a lawyer for medical marijuana backers told a federal appeals
court.

Joseph Elford, a lawyer for Americans
for Safe Access, asked a three-judge panel in Washington today to order
the DEA to reconsider its decision to keep marijuana a Schedule I
narcotic, saying the agency’s ruling that there are no scientific
studies finding an acceptable medical use was arbitrary and capricious.

"There are over 200 studies that are adequate and well-controlled studies," Elford told the judges.

The case involves an 10-year-old petition from medical marijuana
advocates who asked the DEA to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III,
IV or V drug, which would allow for looser regulation. On June 21, 2011,
the DEA rejected the request, stating that existing clinical evidence
wasn’t adequate to warrant reclassification.

The judges questioned whether the
medical marijuana patients and the advocacy group had the authority to
challenge the DEA’s decision. U.S. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland said
the court has limited authority to review it as long as the agency made a
proper showing of support for it.

"I’m trying to figure out what our standard of review is," Garland asked a lawyer for the Justice Department.
"Is there evidence to support the administration’s position that there
is no substantial evidence? That sounds funny." Lena Watkins, a lawyer
for the Justice Department,
said the studies cited by the marijuana proponents were rejected
because the research didn’t meet government standards. She said about 15
studies meet the standards, though the government doesn’t have the
final results yet.

The case is Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration, 11-1265, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington).

The Drug Enforcement Administration "acted arbitrarily and
capriciously" in denying a petition to reclassify cannabis as a less
harmful substance, a lawyer for medical marijuana advocates told a
federal appeals court on Tuesday.

Arguing on behalf of Americans for Safe Access, Joseph Elford called
on the court to force the DEA to reconsider its classification of
cannabis as a dangerous drug without therapeutic benefits, saying the
agency ignored 200 well-controlled studies showing cannabis has
legitimate medical uses.

At issue is a petition filed by public interest organizations back in
2002 that requested that cannabis — currently defined as a Schedule I
drug with "a high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted
medical use in treatment" — be reclassified. For context, heroine and
LSD are classified alongside marijuana as Schedule I, while cocaine,
opium and methamphetamine are classified as Schedule II, meaning they
have "some accepted medical use."

Justice Department lawyer Lena Watkins said a DEA review found "no
substantial evidence" of acceptable medical use, adding that the agency
rejected the studies cited by Elford because they did not meet the
standard of double-blind FDA approval trials. Watkins said that the
results are still pending from 15 government-approved studies.

That, Elford countered, is because the agency is deliberately
"stymying" research. "DEA’s played a game of ‘gotcha,’" he told the
judges. "They won’t allow additional research to be conducted."

The case, Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement
Administration, was heard by a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.