Meanwhile, neurologist Gregory Barnes keeps his marijuana derivative inside a lockbox, stored inside a biometric safe, inside a locked pharmacy. This year, Barnes plans to start the first clinical trial to test the effect of cannabidivarin (CBDV) on children who have both autism and epilepsy. (CBDV is one of marijuana’s many active ingredients.) In the nearly two years Barnes has been trying to get his trial off the ground, agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have paid two visits to inspect his facility—and he’s expecting a third.

Medical marijuana is legal in many states, including Washington, but the federal government still bans its use. The DEA ranks all compounds extracted from marijuana as Schedule 1 drugs—meaning they have “no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.” CBDV and the closely related cannabidiol (CBD) do not produce the high associated with marijuana. Still, their Schedule 1 status put them in the same league as heroin and LSD, a more dangerous one than cocaine or oxycodone.

In 2011, the then-governors of Rhode Island and Washington petitioned the DEA to reclassify medical marijuana as a Schedule 2 drug. The change would have enabled states to regulate safe access to medical marijuana for those who need it without violating federal law. But in August, the DEA reaffirmed its stance, based on a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The DEA did relax some rules, however, inviting universities to apply to grow marijuana for “research purposes.”

These stark contrasts leave the state of marijuana research for autism in a bizarre state of flux: Marijuana is simultaneously legal and illegal, easy to obtain and heavily restricted, a miracle cure and a completely untested treatment navigating the first rounds of clinical trials.

At the crux of the contradictions lie important questions: Is marijuana a legitimate treatment for autism? And is it safe to give to children? Many families feel they already know the answers. But researchers say these questions need to be addressed in a controlled, rigorous way.

“I’m OK with approving these things and making them accessible for people with treatment-resistant problems,” says Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist at New York University who is studying the effect of CBD on epilepsy. “By the same token, we as a political, medical, and scientific society should be moving for high-quality scientific data. If it's safe and effective, people should be able to use their prescription plans and get it; if it's dangerous or if it’s ineffective, nobody should get access to it.”

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California became the first U.S. state to legalize medical marijuana, mainly for adults with severe chronic illness such as cancer or AIDS. Since California’s decision in 1996, 24 states and the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) have followed, and since 2012, four states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational use of the drug. So far, only Pennsylvania specifically permits medical marijuana use for autism, but in the past few years, parents of children with epilepsy across the nation have adopted this approach.