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The Biden administration moved on Tuesday to reclassify marijuana as a low-risk substance, a person familiar with the plan told , a historic move. Medical benefits It has broad implications for research related to the long-standing criminal drug and cannabis Industry as a whole.
The United States Department of Justice has proposed reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III controlled substance, which shares the same status as prescription drugs like ketamine and Tylenol with codeine.
“Today [Attorney General Merrick Garland] He circulated a proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3,” DOJ Public Affairs Director Zochitel Hinojosa said in a statement. “Once published in the Federal Register, it begins the formal rulemaking process established by Congress in the Controlled Substances Act.”
The formal rulemaking process is lengthy, typically includes a public comment period, and can take months to complete.
The exchange recommendation, first reported Tuesday by The Associated Press, has been praised by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Republican Rep. Nancy Massey of South Carolina. Installed on X. “Top News for Businesses, Tax Cuts and Research Barriers.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, said in a statement that the rescheduling is “one step closer to ending the failed war on drugs.”
For more than 50 years, marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I substance—drugs like heroin, bath salts, and ecstasy with unacceptable medical use and high abuse potential—and subject to stricter restrictions.
The expected recommendation comes after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services follows a review of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2022 under the direction of President Joe Biden. Sent a letter to the Department of Justice to reclassify it to Schedule III..
last fall, The FDA's controlled substance staff wrote in the documents that the agency recommended rescheduling marijuana because it meets three criteria: less abuse potential than other schedule I and II substances; Current accepted medical use in the US; and a low or moderate risk of physical dependence in people who abuse it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse agrees with the recommendation.
Although marijuana has the “highest prevalence of nonmedical use” in the U.S., it does not appear to produce serious effects compared to drugs such as heroin, oxycodone and cocaine, the researchers said. This is well known due to the presence of high concentrations of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active compound in cannabis.
Since the first sale of adult-use cannabis took place In 2014 in Coloradocannabis to bloom A multi-billion dollar industry Attracted attention Multinational companies In sectors such as alcohol, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and tobacco.
Cannabis, and especially how it is viewed by the public and politicians, has undergone a sea change over the past decade.
Currently, 24 states, two states and DC have legalized cannabis for adult recreational use, and 38 states allow medical use of cannabis products. National Conference of State Legislatures. According to MJBiz, a producer of cannabis industry trade publications and events, state-licensed cannabis dispensaries and retail stores are expected to generate $32.1 billion in sales this year.
Public sentiment ballooned: In November, That's a record 70% of Americans surveyed by Gallup. He said he supports the legalization of cannabis. In 2014, this share was 51 percent.
U.S. lawmakers have also warmed to the plant, drafting cannabis-related bills, including those that seek to remove marijuana entirely from the Controlled Substances Act while maintaining state-run markets.
Descheduling marijuana could open many avenues for research. lightening the consequences of some of the most serious criminal offenses; Allowing cannabis businesses to bank more freely and transparently, and perhaps most significantly for state-licensed operators, would exempt the companies from the 40-year-old tax code, which disallows credits and deductions from income generated from the sale of Schedule I and II substances.
However, decriminalizing marijuana won't solve that federal-state conflict, the Congressional Research Service said. It was mentioned in the briefing on January 16. The production, distribution and possession of recreational marijuana remains illegal under federal law and is subject to enforcement and prosecution regardless of state legality, CRS wrote.
“Aside from the tax implications, this is a big deal,” former Colorado cannabis czar Andrew Friedman, who serves as Colorado's executive director of cannabis policy, education and regulation, told in an interview. “It's rare for the federal government to reverse its position over the past 100 years and imprison countless people.”
States with medical marijuana programs currently have some federal protections through relevant legislation that limits the Department of Justice from interfering with those programs. Schedule III status does not affect that rider, CRS said.
The 2018 Farm Reform Act, better known as the Farm Bill, deregulated hemp and hemp-derived cannabidiol, removing it from the definition of marijuana—and regulatory oversight—under the Controlled Substances Act. The FDA's Scientific and Medical Review of Marijuana did not include products containing the plant-derived cannabidiol, commonly known as CBD.