The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday denied requests to stop classifying marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use, leaving users and businesses in limbo after many states have legalized it for medical or recreational purposes.
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The DEA though did relax certain restrictions on growing marijuana for research purposes.
For decades, marijuana has been listed as a "Schedule I" drug, placing it on par with heroin. The government has repeatedly rejected appeals for reclassification.
Thursday's DEA decision was a response to a 2011 petition issued by two former state governors who had urged federal agencies to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses.
In a letter to the petitioners, the DEA said it had asked the Department of Health and Human Services for a scientific and medical evaluation.
"HHS concluded that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision," the letter said.
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That assessment comes amid statistics showing zero overdose deaths due to marijuana each year at a time of an alarming rise of heroin-related deaths in the United States as politicians debate remedies for exploding opioid abuse.
Twenty-five states have sanctioned some forms of marijuana use for medical purposes. Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and the District of Columbia now allow recreational use for adults, while California and eight other states have recreational or medical marijuana proposals headed for their 2016 ballots.
The position of the U.S. government on marijuana has impacts for states that have legalized its recreational or medical use. Doctors and businesses growing, selling or prescribing cannabis may be operating legally within a given state, but still acting in opposition to federal law, risking arrest and sanctions.
Nationwide, a 2015 Harris poll in May found that 81 percent of adults in the U.S. favor legalizing medical marijuana in their home states, while 49 percent support legalizing it for recreational use.