

The Drug Enforcement Administration intends to decide on changing the federal classification of marijuana, the agency wrote in a letter to U.S. lawmakers.

Currently listed as a Schedule I substance, marijuana is still considered to be one of the most dangerous drugs without any medical value. However, a myriad of studies have continued to prove the medicinal benefits of marijuana since it was first classified in 1970 under the Controlled Substances Act.

Respected medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have implored the DEA to reclassify the status of marijuana, citing its significant potential to treat a number of ailments that includes chronic pain, severe epilepsy, and even cancer.

Although downgrading marijuana to a lesser schedule won’t necessarily make it legal, it would open up the possibility for more scientific research. The government currently gives monopoly to the University of Mississippi for marijuana production for research purposes.

“Because of this monopoly, research-grade drugs that meet researchers’ specifications often take years to acquire, if they are produced at all,” according to a 2015 Brookings Institution report.

The research monopoly is also compounded by the fact that the application process to qualify for marijuana research is a bureaucratic mess that includes approval from both the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An average of only nine researchers per year were given access to marijuana for research purposes in the years between 2010 and 2015, according to the DEA letter.

“That number is totally insufficient to meet public health needs and to answer the number of [research] questions that pop up yearly,” the Brookings Institution’s John Hudak said in an interview with the Washington Post.

The Drug Enforcement Administration are likely to make their decision within the next few months.

“DEA understands the widespread interest in the prompt resolution to these petitions and hopes to release its determination in the first half of 2016,” the agency wrote in the 25-page letter.