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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
Justice Dept plans to reschedule marijuana as a lower-risk drug | |
By Alicia Wallace, Katherine Dillinger, Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny and | |
Kayla Tausche, CNN | |
Updated: | |
6:48 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
The Biden administration moved Tuesday to reclassify marijuana as a | |
lower-risk substance, a person familiar with the plans told CNN, a | |
historic move that acknowledges the of the long-criminalized drug and | |
carries broad implications for cannabis-related research and the . | |
The US Department of Justice recommended that marijuana be rescheduled | |
as a Schedule III controlled substance, a classification shared by | |
prescription drugs such as ketamine and Tylenol with codeine. | |
“Today, [Attorney General Merrick Garland] circulated a proposal to | |
reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III,” Xochitl | |
Hinojosa, the DOJ’s director of public affairs, said in a statement. | |
“Once published by the Federal Register, it will initiate a formal | |
rulemaking process as prescribed by Congress in the Controlled | |
Substances Act.” | |
The formal rulemaking process is lengthy, typically includes a public | |
comment period and could take months to complete. | |
The rescheduling recommendation, which was first reported Tuesday by | |
the Associated Press, was hailed by lawmakers on both sides of the | |
aisle, including Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who | |
“major news for businesses, tax deductions & research barriers.” | |
Democrat Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon said in a statement that | |
rescheduling is “one step closer to ending the failed war on | |
drugs.” | |
An accepted medical use | |
For more than 50 years, marijuana has been categorized as a Schedule I | |
substance — drugs like heroin, bath salts and ecstasy that are | |
considered to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for | |
abuse — and subject to the strictest of restrictions. | |
The expected recommendation comes after the US Health and Human | |
Services department, following a thorough US Food and Drug | |
Administration review at the direction of President Joe Biden, who in | |
2022 . | |
Last fall, members of the FDA’s Controlled Substance Staff wrote in | |
the documents that the agency recommended rescheduling marijuana | |
because it meets three criteria: a lower potential for abuse than other | |
substances on Schedules I and II; a currently accepted medical use in | |
treatment in the US; and a risk of low or moderate physical dependence | |
in people who abuse it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse concurred | |
with the recommendation. | |
Although marijuana has a “high prevalence of non-medical use” in | |
the US, it doesn’t seem to elicit serious outcomes, compared with | |
drugs such as heroin, oxycodone and cocaine, the researchers said. | |
“This is especially notable given the availability” of products | |
that contain very high levels of Delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), | |
the primary active compound in cannabis. | |
A booming industry | |
Since the first adult-use cannabis sale took place , cannabis has | |
blossomed into a that has attracted the attention of across sectors | |
such as alcohol, agriculture, pharmaceutical and tobacco. | |
Cannabis, and specifically how it is viewed by the public and | |
politicians, has undergone a sea-change during the past decade. | |
Currently, 24 states, two territories and DC have legalized cannabis | |
for adult recreational use, and 38 states allow medical use of cannabis | |
products, according to data from the . State-licensed cannabis | |
dispensaries and retail shops are expected to generate $32.1 billion in | |
sales this year, according to estimates from MJBiz, a cannabis industry | |
trade publication and events organizer. | |
Public sentiment has ballooned: In November, said they supported | |
cannabis legalization. In 2014, that share was 51%. | |
US lawmakers have warmed up to the plant as well, drafting scores of | |
cannabis-related bills, including those seeking to remove marijuana | |
entirely from the Controlled Substances Act while preserving the | |
state-run markets. | |
Still federally illegal | |
Moving marijuana out of Schedule I could open more avenues for | |
research; ease some of the more harshly punitive criminal consequences; | |
potentially allow cannabis businesses to bank more freely and openly; | |
and, perhaps most significantly for state-licensed operators, result in | |
firms no longer being subjected to a 40-year-old tax code that | |
disallows credits and deductions from income generated by sales of | |
Schedule I and II substances. | |
However, rescheduling marijuana will not solve that federal-state | |
conflict, the Congressional Research Service . The manufacture, | |
distribution and possession of recreational marijuana would remain | |
illegal under federal law and possibly subject to enforcement and | |
prosecution regardless of the state’s legality, the CRS wrote. | |
“Outside of the tax implications, this is monumentally symbolic,” | |
Andrew Freedman, the former Colorado cannabis czar who now serves as | |
executive director of the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education and | |
Regulation, told CNN in an interview. “It is rare for the federal | |
government to reverse itself on an issue where it’s had a stance for | |
the last 100 years and arrested countless people for.” | |
States with medical marijuana programs do currently have some federal | |
protections in place via appropriations legislation that restricts the | |
Justice Department from interfering in those programs. Schedule III | |
status will not affect that rider, the CRS said. | |
The 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act, better known as the Farm Bill, | |
defined and decontrolled hemp and hemp-derived cannabidiol and removed | |
it from the definition of marijuana — and from regulatory control — | |
under the Controlled Substances Act. The FDA’s scientific and medical | |
evaluation of marijuana did not address products containing | |
plant-derived cannabidiol, commonly known as CBD. | |
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