ern about recreational use increased, and in 1970 Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act. This law assigned psychoactive drugs to five schedules and placed cannabis in Schedule I, the most restrictive. According to the legal definition, Schedule I drugs have no medical use and a high potential for abuse, and they cannot be used safely even under a doctor's supervision. Two years later, in 1972, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) petitioned the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (formerly the Federal Bureau of Narcotics) to transfer marijuana to Schedule II so that physicians could legally prescribe it. As the legal proceedings continued, other parties joined, including the Drug Policy Foundation and the Physicians Association for AIDS Care. The hearing was finally allowed and as Grinspoon and Bakalar mention, “The hearings before the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) were instructive. As one of us (L.G.) waited to testify on the medical uses of cannabis, he witnessed the effort to place pentazocine (Talwin ), a synthetic opioid analgesic made by Winthrop Pharmaceuticals, on the schedule of dangerous drugs. The testimony indicated several hundred cases of addiction, a number of deaths from overdose, and considerable evidence of abuse. Six lawyers from the drug company, briefcases in hand, came forward to prevent the classification of pentazocine or at least to ensure that it was placed in one of the less restrictive schedules. They succeeded in part; it became a Schedule IV drug. In the testimony on cannabis, the next drug to be considered, there was no evidence of overdose deaths or addiction - simply many witnesses, both patients and physicians, who testified to its medical utility. The government refused to transfer it to Schedule II.” (19) Although the attempt failed, not all was lost. NORML fought back in January 1974 by filing a suit against the Bureau of Nar...
