Judge’s Decision Keeps Marijuana on List of Schedule I Drugs

A ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller keeps marijuana on the list of Schedule I drugs, alongside LSD and heroin. Schedule I drugs are substances classified as having no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

Judge Mueller had agreed to consider marijuana’s drug classification under the 1970 Controlled Substance Act. She held a five-day fact-finding hearing in late 2014. Her decision to hold the hearing was in response to a pretrial defense motion in a federal case against alleged marijuana growers.

The defendants are accused of conspiring to grow more than 1,000 marijuana plants in a national forest. Judge Mueller will continue to preside over the case, The New York Times reports.

Lawyers for the defendants say the federal marijuana law violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. They argue the government enforces marijuana law unevenly by permitting marijuana to be distributed in states where it is legal, while cracking down in states where it is illegal.

In her ruling, Judge Mueller said any adjustments to the law should be made by Congress.