After months of public pressure, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has removed factually inaccurate information from its website.
The move comes after Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis, filed a legal request with the Department of Justice last year demanding that the DEA remove “damaging misinformation” regarding cannabis from its website.
The DEA removed information from its site that included “claims that cannabis was a gateway drug, caused irreversible cognitive decline in adults, and contributed to psychosis and lung cancer,” according to a news release from the ASA.
“The DEA’s removal of these popular myths about cannabis from their website could mean the end of the Washington gridlock” regarding scientific information about marijuana, said ASA executive director Steph Sherer.
Correcting misinformation is paramount, the ASA argued, especially given that newly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said he believes cannabis is a gateway drug and can cause long-term psychological damage to consumers.
“These beliefs are verifiably false,” ASA wrote in a letter delivered to the DEA on Monday. “Allowing Mr. Sessions to make law enforcement decisions based on biased, out-of-date information does a tremendous disservice to ASA’s members and the American people at large.”