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 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
 Drug Enforcement Administration
 )
 In the Matter of )
 ) Docket No. 86-22
 MAR_JUANARESCHEDULING PETITION )
 BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF FINDXNGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
 SUBMITTED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR CANNABIS THERAPEUTICS
 I. INTRODUCTION
 For nearly five thousand years, marijuana was accepted
 by the medical commttnity as medicine. Not only was the drug
 regarded as extremely safe _- it had never killed or seriously
 injured anyone who had ingested it under the watchful eye of a
 ._ii. physician -- but it also proved quite efficacious in the
 treatment of several troublesome ailments, including digestive
 -upsets and nervous spasms. In the. United States, the drug was
 widely accepted by the medical community from colonial times
 until the late 1930_s_
 As fear regarding the drug's social abuse increased in
 the United States, marijuana_s use as medicine declined.
 Concern of this type reached such a crescendo in 1970 that
 Congress, overlooking marijuana_s past medical utility, not only
 declared the drug illegal, but also classified marijuana as a
 drug without a #currently accepted medical use in treatment_ #
 and unsafe, even under medical supervision.
 ._ ..... Despite marijuana°s status as an illegal drug,
 patients, doctors, researchers, medical organizations and even