![An Initiative To Legalize Marijuana In California To Appear On Nov. Ballot An Initiative To Legalize Marijuana In California To Appear On Nov. Ballot](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/gettyimages-98049962.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
The head of the country’s Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged that marijuana is safer than heroin.
On Wednesday, DEA acting chief Chuck Rosenberg admitted “heroin is clearly more dangerous than marijuana,” the Huffington Post reports. Last week, Rosenberg had said marijuana is “probably not” as dangerous as heroin, but added that he was “not an expert.”
Marijuana is still classified by the DEA as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. The category is for drugs with the highest potential of abuse and no medical value.
Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, and 23 states have legalized it for medical purposes.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Eyewitness Accounts From the Trump Rally Shooting
- Politicians Condemn Trump Rally Shooting: ‘No Place for Political Violence in Our Democracy’
- From 2022: How the Threat of Political Violence Is Transforming America
- ‘We’re Living in a Nightmare:’ Inside the Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town
- Remembering Shannen Doherty , the Quintessential Gen X Girl
- How Often Do You Really Need to Wash Your Sheets?
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox
Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com