Mother Jones illustration; Richard B. Levine/Levine Roberts/Zuma
On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing that cannabis be reclassified from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a classification that comes with steep penalties, to the less severe Schedule III, for drugs with significant medical use. If the White House Office of Management and Budget approves the decision, the DEA would be able to offer its proposal for public comment.
Schedule I drugs, according to the DEA’s website, have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”; other Schedule I drugs include heroin and ecstasy. If the proposal moves along, its public comment period would need to be followed with approval by an administrative judge, and marijuana could then be reclassified alongside ketamine and testosterone on Schedule III. Just three states—Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska—currently do not have any laws that let residents use cannabis or cannabidiol for medical purposes.
The move follows a letter from FDA researchers submitted to the DEA in August, which argued that there’s enough scientific research to support the established medical uses of cannabis. On the potential for abuse, they wrote that “evidence exists showing that the vast majority of individuals who use marijuana are doing so in a manner that does not lead to dangerous outcomes to themselves or others.” Marijuana has been found to be helpful in easing pain, controlling nausea, and helping people regain their appetite after treatments like chemotherapy.
People still need prescriptions for Schedule III drugs, meaning that people in states where marijuana is illegal or only allowed for medicinal use could still get in trouble for recreational use. Some have raised objections to keeping the drug scheduled at all: “Rescheduling would allow for the criminal penalties for recreational and medical marijuana use to continue—disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities,” House Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said in a press release that followed the announcement.
President Biden has repeatedly said he’d take steps to decriminalize marijuana—at a speech in Wisconsin, when asked what he would do to stop people from being imprisoned for possessing pot, he said, “I’m taking care of that.”
