Experts Issue 'Urgent' Warning Over Biden-Harris Cannabis Plans
- The Biden-Harris administration is planning to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, but experts criticize this move due to concerns about embedding marijuana into the flawed pharmaceutical system
- While the reclassification would not legalize marijuana, it would loosen restrictions on buying and distributing it for medical purposes
- Critics argue that Schedule III drugs are tightly controlled and incorporating marijuana into the pharmaceutical system could worsen existing problems, such as high costs and disparities
- Experts warn that adding marijuana to Schedule III would be akin to adding new cargo to a sinking ship, referencing the ongoing opioid crisis as evidence of the poor handling of controlled substances
Recent plans to reclassify marijuana have drawn criticism from some experts, who believe this would only exacerbate existing issues in the regulatory environment.
In March, the Biden-Harris administration announced plans to downgrade marijuana from the Schedule I class of drugs—where it currently sits alongside heroin, mescaline and LSD—to Schedule III, among drugs that carry a lower risk of dependence or abuse.
The federal government has maintained cannabis as a Schedule I substance since Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 under President Richard Nixon.
In May, the administration moved to officially downgrade the drug, submitting the proposed rule to the Federal Register, and beginning the drawn-out process of approval.
However, in a Tuesday op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, three experts, including a drug policy researcher and two legal scholars, warned that downgrading the classification would only embed the substance into the "deeply flawed American pharmaceutical system."
While the move would not serve to legalize the drug outright—which 24 U.S. states have so far done for recreational use and 38 states have done for medicinal purposes—it would loosen restrictions on buying and distributing marijuana in a medical context.
This, the authors write, would be a grave blunder and would risk "adding yet another chapter to the long history of misguided drug regulation in the United States."
Citing practical concerns over this proposal, they highlight that Schedule III drugs are "very tightly controlled," and that the category "covers an incongruous assortment of medications," ranging from ketamine and Adderall to treatments such as the opioid Suboxone or testosterone used in gender-affirming healthcare.
They argue that, while these drugs are legal, their possession and distribution are still "highly criminalized" outside of the medical context.
The graver concern, they write, would be the incorporation of cannabis into America's pharmaceutical system, already wrought with "high costs, chronic shortages and gaping disparities."
"The pharmaceutical sector's handling of controlled substances is especially abysmal," the authors state, citing the country's ongoing opioid crisis as evidence of the way in which the federal government has so far handled controlled substances, sparked by the "lax regulation of Schedule III opioid painkillers."
The regulatory framework surrounding Schedule III, they argue, "is a rudderless, aging ship taking on water," before stating: "Adding cannabis is like piling a whole bunch of new cargo onto this sinking vessel."
Reclassifying marijuana also fails to acknowledge the drug's "diverse uses" outside of healthcare, creating a "blind spot for cultural and spiritual practices that have long been part of cannabis use."
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