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UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MAY RECLASSIFY MARIJUANA, BUT LEGALIZE IT? NO.

By
Editor
-
September 3, 2023
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Image: Screengrab from Youtube: Drug Enforcement officers like this may no
longer have to risk their lives in marijuana plantations.
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U.S. federal health regulators are proposing that the federal government loosen
restrictions on marijuana and instead classify it as a Schedule III drug,
putting it in a group with thereapeutic drugs rather than just classifying it as
an illegal substance that has no known medical use.

At the present time marijuana is legal in many states, but illegal from the
point of view of the federal government. For example passengers arriving on an
international flight into an airport in a state that allows marijuana might
still be arrested for drug smuggling by US Customs at the airport.

Specifically, the federal Health and Human Services Department has recommended
taking marijuana out of a category of drugs deemed to have “no currently
accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The agency advised moving
pot from that “Schedule I” group to the less tightly regulated “Schedule III.”

So what does that mean, and what are the implications? Read on.

First of all, what has actually changed? What happens next?

Technically, nothing yet. Any decision on reclassifying — or “rescheduling,” in
government lingo — is up to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which says it
will take up the issue. The review process is lengthy and involves taking public
comment.

Still, the HHS recommendation is “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting,”
said Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and psychedelics attorney
who runs well-known legal blogs on those topics.

“I can’t emphasize enough how big of news it is,” he said.

It came after President Joe Biden asked both HHS and the attorney general, who
oversees the DEA, last year to review how marijuana was classified. Schedule I
put it on par, legally, with heroin, LSD, quaaludes and ecstasy, among others.

Biden, a Democrat, supports legalizing medical marijuana for use “where
appropriate, consistent with medical and scientific evidence,” White House press
secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. “That is why it is important for
this independent review to go through.”

So if marijuana gets reclassified, would it legalize recreational pot
nationwide?

No. Schedule III drugs — which include ketamine, anabolic steroids and some
acetaminophen-codeine combinations — are still controlled substances.

They’re subject to various rules that allow for some medical uses, and for
federal criminal prosecution of anyone who traffics in the drugs without
permission. (Even under marijuana’s current Schedule I status, federal
prosecutions for simply possessing it are few: There were 145 federal
sentencings in fiscal year 2021 for that crime, and as of 2022, no defendants
were in prison for it.)

It’s unlikely that the medical marijuana programs now licensed in 38 states — to
say nothing of the legal recreational pot markets in 23 states — would meet the
production, record-keeping, prescribing and other requirements for Schedule III
drugs.

But rescheduling in itself would have some impact, particularly on research and
on pot business taxes.

What would this mean for research?

Because marijuana is on Schedule I, it’s been very difficult to conduct
authorized clinical studies that involve administering the drug. That has
created something of a Catch-22: calls for more research, but barriers to doing
it. (Scientists sometimes rely instead on people’s own reports of their
marijuana use.)

Schedule III drugs are easier to study.

In the meantime, a 2022 federal law aimed to ease marijuana research.

What about taxes (and banking)?

Under the federal tax code, businesses involved in “trafficking” in marijuana or
any other Schedule I or II drug can’t deduct rent, payroll or various other
expenses that other businesses can write off. (Yes, at least some cannabis
businesses, particularly state-licensed ones, do pay taxes to the federal
government, despite its prohibition on marijuana.) Industry groups say the tax
rate often ends up at 70% or more.

The deduction rule doesn’t apply to Schedule III drugs, so the proposed change
would cut pot companies’ taxes substantially.

They say it would treat them like other industries and help them compete against
illegal competitors that are frustrating licensees and officials in places such
as New York.

“You’re going to make these state-legal programs stronger,” says Adam Goers, an
executive at medical and recreational pot giant Columbia Care. He co-chairs a
coalition of corporate and other players that’s pushing for rescheduling.

Rescheduling wouldn’t directly affect another pot business problem: difficulty
accessing banks, particularly for loans, because the federally regulated
institutions are wary of the drug’s legal status. The industry has been looking
instead to a measure called the SAFE Banking Act. It has repeatedly passed the
House but stalled in the Senate.

Are there critics? What do they say?

Indeed, there are, including the national anti-legalization group Smart
Approaches to Marijuana. President Kevin Sabet, a former Obama administration
drug policy official, said the HHS recommendation “flies in the face of science,
reeks of politics” and gives a regrettable nod to an industry “desperately
looking for legitimacy.”

Some legalization advocates say rescheduling weed is too incremental. They want
to keep focus on removing it completely from the controlled substances list,
which doesn’t include such items as alcohol or tobacco (they’re regulated, but
that’s not the same).

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Deputy Director Paul
Armentano said that simply reclassifying marijuana would be “perpetuating the
existing divide between state and federal marijuana policies.” Minority Cannabis
Business Association President Kaliko Castille said rescheduling just “re-brands
prohibition,” rather than giving an all-clear to state licensees and putting a
definitive close to decades of arrests that disproportionately pulled in people
of color.

“Schedule III is going to leave it in this kind of amorphous, mucky middle where
people are not going to understand the danger of it still being federally
illegal,” he said.

Source: VOA.

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 * TAGS
 * Class III
 * marijuana
 * US health regulators

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