Nearly two months after President Joe Biden stated that “no one should be jailed for simply using” cannabis in his State of the Union speech, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration is poised to reschedule the drug, reported the Associated Press on April 30.
Unnamed DEA sources told AP that the agency wants to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug, on par with heroin, to a Schedule III drug, like ketamine. The DEA’s proposal still needs to be approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The move represents a historic shift away from many decades of cannabis prohibition. But it falls short of full decriminalization or legalization.
“We all deserve a federal framework that upholds the health, wellbeing and safety of our communities—particularly Black communities who have borne the brunt of racist enforcement.”
The rescheduling still leaves people vulnerable to arrest, and doesn’t make it legal to sell weed. Being caught with cannabis can still cause a non-citizen to be deported.
“We all deserve a federal framework for marijuana that upholds the health, wellbeing and safety of our communities—particularly Black communities who have borne the brunt of our country’s racist enforcement of marijuana laws,” said Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance, in a news release.
Schedule I drugs are defined by the DEA as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” while Schedule III substances are deemed to have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” The Biden administration had announced a scheduling review for cannabis in October 2022.
“It is significant for these federal agencies, and the DEA and FDA in particular, to acknowledge publicly for the first time what many patients and advocates have known for decades: that cannabis is a safe and effective therapeutic agent for tens of millions of Americans,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director for cannabis advocacy group NORML, in a statement.
“Existing state legalization laws—both adult use and medical—will continue to be in conflict with federal regulations.”
Cannabis is currently legal for adult use in 24 states and Washington, DC, while at least 17 states have legalized weed for medical purposes. However, cannabis businesses currently operating, even in legal states, are federally illegal, which makes banking, insurance and other logistics challenging.
It’s not clear how those businesses would have to change to adapt to cannabis having a Schedule III status. Ketamine clinics, for example, are tightly controlled by the DEA.
“Existing state legalization laws—both adult use and medical—will continue to be in conflict with federal regulations, thereby perpetuating the existing divide between state and federal marijuana policies,” Armentano said.
In October 2022 and again in December 2023, the White House announced mass pardons for thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession. The measure didn’t actually release anyone from prison, as there are very few people in federal prisons over simple possession. While a pardon does not expunge a person’s conviction, it can remove restrictions on their ability to vote, hold office, and find housing and employment.
Despite advancing some unprecedented cannabis reforms, the Biden administration has been strongly criticized for failing to follow through on past promises—including by a coalition of advocacy groups that gathered in Washington, DC, for a week of lobbying and protests to mark 4/20. The end of marijuana prohibition has not yet come.
Photograph by the Alaska Landmine via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0
The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, previously received a restricted grant from the Drug Policy Alliance. Filter‘s Editorial Independence Policy applies.
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