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By: The opinion Posted Aug 31, 2023, 22:06 pm EDT
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is formally reconsidering the DEA easing restrictions on marijuanawhich remains illegal at the federal level despite the fact that 40 states in the country already accept its use, would also open the possibility for medical researchers to study the benefits and risks of marijuana as a potential drug.
The Biden administration is rethinking how it classifies marijuana on a federal drug lista move that could save the cannabis industry potentially billions in federal taxes each year by allowing growers to write off their business expenses.
In the eyes of the DEA, cannabis is in the same category as other Schedule I drugs like heroin and LSD, which means they have a high potential for abuse and no medicinal use is accepted.
I can now share that, following the data and science, @HHSGov has responded to @POTUS’ directive to me for the Department to provide a scheduling recommendation for marijuana to the DEA.
We’ve worked to ensure that a scientific evaluation be completed and shared expeditiously. pic.twitter.com/p84x8p07sP
— Secretary Xavier Becerra (@SecBecerra) August 30, 2023
Industry advocates called the proposal a welcome development.but which still fails to reconcile the federal government’s prohibition on drugs and state laws that accept the use of marijuana.
“The only way to fully resolve the myriad of problems stemming from federal conflict with state law is to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and regulate the product similar to alcohol,” said the executive director of the National Association of Cannabis Industry, Aaron Smith.
Under the plan, which could take anywhere from months to more than a year to complete, the DEA would no longer consider marijuana a Schedule I drug. That designation puts marijuana in the same field as heroin and LSD, a drug with a high potential for abuse and no medical use. The new plan, if approved, would place marijuana on Schedule III, easing restrictions and putting it on a par with drugs like Tylenol with codeine.
In addition, last fall, President Joe Biden said that reducing penalties related to marijuana was a priority, since “While whites, African-Americans and Latinos use marijuana at similar rates, the latter two have been arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionate rates,” he said in October.
According to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, the agency responded to a request from President Joe Biden to “submit to the DEA a classification recommendation on marijuana,” he detailed through his X account, formerly Twitter. .
In that sense, according to the leader of the majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, marijuana could go from being a Schedule I controlled substance to a Schedule III one.
This classification is for the drug or other substance that has a currently accepted medical use for treatment in the United States, emphasizing that the abuse of the drug or other substance can cause a moderate or low physical dependence, or a high psychological dependence.