The rationale used for cannabis prohibition applies to all the drugs listed under the Controlled Substances Act. The Drug Enforcement Administration provides a comprehensive resource guide to the drugs they prohibit in their 2011 edition titled, "Drugs of Abuse". The essential justification for controlling substances rests upon the a term they call the, "potential for abuse". The criterion for this potential assigns five levels of scheduling with Schedule I the highest amount of stringency. The criterion for Schedule are as follows:.
The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. Examples of Schedule I substances include heroin, gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana, and methaqualone.
With the history and legality of cannabis in mind, prohibition fails to provide any significant moral or pragmatic benefit for society. Firstly, cannabis has been proven to have medical value by thousands of peer-reviewed studies. However, cannabis remains on the Schedule I listing; the most dangerous class which contains drugs such as methamphetamine and heroin. In order to gain legislative legitimacy, a series of well-funded studies must be conducted by the government in order to make a conclusion. The Drug Enforcement Administration has refused to allow large scale fundings to keep the drug illegal on multiple occasions. Schedule II drugs, on the contrary, include cocaine, opium, poppy, morphine, and codeine which have a medically accepted use. To further the demonstrate the absurdity, a synthetic version of cannabis known as marinol is listed as Schedule III, even though it uses the exact psychoactive ingredient responsible for the "high" cannabis induces, THC.