In 1972, NORML files an administrative petition with the DEA. “NORML’s petition called on the federal government to reclassify marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule II drug so that physicians could legally prescribe it. Federal authorities initially refused to accept the petition until mandated to do so by the US Court of Appeals in 1974, and then refused to properly process it until again ordered by the Court in 1982…
Fourteen years after NORML’s initial petition, in 1986, the DEA finally held public hearings on the issue before an administrative law judge. Two years later [on Sep. 6, 1998], Judge Francis Young ruled [in the matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition, Docket No. 86-22] that the therapeutic use of marijuana was recognized by a respected minority of the medical community, and that it met the standards of other legal medications.”
The final ruling in the case was made Feb. 18, 1994.