WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration on Friday refused to relax restrictions on marijuana.
Administrator John C. Lawn, in an order published in the Federal Register, rejected a longstanding petition by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, known as NORML.
Lawn's order means that marijuana will remain under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, rather than be placed in Schedule II, as the marijuana organization had asked in its petition. Proceedings on the petition had been under way for more than three years.
The decision, which had been expected, overturns a recommendation of DEA's chief administrative law judge, Francis L. Young, who urged on Sept. 6, 1988, that marijuana be placed on the less restrictive schedule.
