A gaggle of 21 Democratic lawmakers urged the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday to “promptly” take away marijuana from the federal authorities’s checklist of restricted medicine, the place it at present sits in the identical class as heroin.
“Though marijuana is widely used and … associated with fewer adverse outcomes than alcohol, it remains in the most restrictive schedule,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “This placement produces a cascade of severe penalties for marijuana users and businesses, including for criminal records, immigration statuses, employment, taxation, health care, public housing, social services, and more.”
“It is time for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to act,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter, first reported by HuffPost, was led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). It comes a year-and-a-half after President Joe Biden ordered a evaluation of pot’s classification as a scheduled drug underneath the Controlled Substances Act, and almost eight months for the reason that Department of Health and Human Services really useful shifting hashish from Schedule I, essentially the most restrictive, to Schedule III.
Biden campaigned on decriminalizing the usage of hashish, however progress towards that promise has been sluggish. In October 2022, Biden directed HHS and the Department of Justice to evaluation how pot is scheduled underneath federal legislation. At the identical time, he pardoned each particular person convicted of easy marijuana possession — an necessary however largely symbolic step, as nobody had been incarcerated in federal jail solely on possession fees.
The Controlled Substances Act divides medicine into classes starting from Schedule I to Schedule V. Cannabis is at present a Schedule I drug, the class for essentially the most harmful substances which have a “high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use.” It’s in the identical class as heroin and is classed as extra harmful than fentanyl or cocaine, that are Schedule II.
“This scheduling decision was made against the political backdrop of the early 1970s, reportedly as part of President Nixon’s efforts to use cannabis prohibition to target ‘the antiwar left and black people,’” learn a earlier letter despatched by most of the identical Democrats in January, citing a report by Vera, a bunch that works to finish mass incarceration.
In August 2023, HHS really useful that the DEA reschedule marijuana to Schedule III, the class for substances which have an accepted medical use and a decrease potential for abuse than Schedule I or II medicine, however which can nonetheless result in bodily or psychological dependence.
After HHS’ announcement, a Texas lawyer named Matt Zorn obtained by way of a public information request the company’s 250-page scientific evaluation, explaining the rationale for its advice.
That evaluation “made clear that cannabis does not meet the medical or scientific requirements for Schedule I,” the lawmakers wrote within the January letter. Rescheduling hashish wouldn’t “rectify the most severe harms of the current system,” they wrote. Namely, rescheduling would do little to scale back the prison penalties related to pot use — which have lengthy disproportionately affected Black and brown communities.
Rescheduling is “intellectually dishonest,” the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) wrote in a memo. “Just as cannabis does not meet the strict criteria of a Schedule I controlled substance, it also does not meet the specific criteria that define schedules II through V.”
Recreational hashish is at present authorized in 24 states, accounting for the place 53% of Americans reside. But in 2022, there have been at the very least 1 / 4 of one million arrests for cannabis-related offenses.
Last month, DEA senior prevention program supervisor Rich Lucey stated on the company’s podcast that it might take “anywhere from three to six months” to evaluation HHS’ scheduling advice.
It has now been eight months, the lawmakers famous on Wednesday.
“The longer marijuana remains scheduled in the CSA, the longer our communities face senselessly severe penalties and the longer the marijuana laws of the majority of U.S. states remain in conflict with federal law,” they wrote. “Right now, the Administration has the opportunity to resolve more than 50 years of failed, racially discriminatory marijuana policy.”
This story has been up to date to replicate that 21 lawmakers signed the letter.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lawmakers-urge-federal-agencies-deschedule-weed_n_6629d95ee4b005d7bf0c85a2