A new drug code established by the Drug Enforcement Agency seeks to acknowledge the medicinal compound cannabidiol (CBD) as an illegal drug just as dangerous as heroin.

The DEA filed a notice on Wednesday titled “Establishment of a New Drug Code for Marihuana Extract,” which will effectively list all forms of marijuana — including CBD extracts — under the most restrictive Schedule I drug category, reports the International Business Times.

“For practical purposes, all extracts that contain CBD will also contain at least small amounts of other cannabinoids. However, if it were possible to produce from the cannabis plant an extract that contained only CBD and no other cannabinoids, such an extract would fall within the new drug code,” the DEA stated.

CBD has been proven throughout several scientific studies as an effective medicine that can treat forms of childhood epilepsy, cancer, and psychological disorders.

The DEA’s new rules are in opposition of the opinion of another federal agency, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, whose director Nora Volkow believes CBD should not be restricted as an addictive substance with no medical value.

“There is reason to believe (CBD) may have a range of uses in medicine, including in the treatment of seizures and other neurological disorders,” Volkow told the Huffington Post in 2015. “In the impassioned, often emotional debates these days over medical marijuana, CBD is often cited as one of the main reasons restrictions on marijuana should be loosened.”

Advocates of cannabis law reform are questioning the legality behind the DEA’s announcement.

“This action is beyond the DEA’s authority,” Robert Hoban, a Colorado cannabis attorney and adjunct professor of law at the University of Denver, told Leafly. “The DEA can only carry out the law, they cannot create it. Here they’re purporting to create an entirely new category called ‘marijuana extracts,’ and by doing so wrest control over all cannabinoids. They want to call all cannabinoids illegal. But they don’t have the authority to do that.”