Staff Reports
The Biden administration is making changes to how marijuana is classified. This means they are changing the rules about how they view the drug, which is currently labeled as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. They want to make it a Schedule III drug, which puts it in the same category as ketamine and some anabolic steroids. This announcement comes after President Joe Biden called for a review of federal marijuana laws two years ago.
Biden administration moves to reclassify marijuana as less dangerous Schedule III drug https://t.co/97YLbVTX95 https://t.co/97YLbVTX95
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 1, 2024
The administration believes that reclassifying marijuana can help people who have been arrested for using or possessing it. They think that having a criminal record for marijuana use can make it hard for people to find jobs, housing, and get a good education. President Biden has already forgiven thousands of people who were convicted at the federal level for having a small amount of marijuana. This change is not expected to have a big impact on the criminal justice system because there are already very few federal prosecutions for having small amounts of marijuana.
Some people don’t think that changing marijuana to a Schedule III drug is good enough. They say that it still means the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, will control how marijuana is regulated. This means that the thousands of places where you can legally buy marijuana in the country would have to follow strict rules and tell the DEA about their business, which can be difficult for the DEA to keep track of.
Instead of just changing the classification of marijuana, some politicians want to take it off the list of controlled substances altogether, and treat it more like alcohol. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats have written a letter to the DEA and the Attorney General asking them to do this. They say that the government has the chance to fix the problems caused by the laws about marijuana use that have been around for more than 50 years.
Chuck Schumer is happy with the announcement about the change, but he thinks that the government should do even more to make it easier for people to use marijuana legally. He wants to pass laws that make it easier for banks to work with businesses that sell marijuana, and he also wants to remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances completely. He believes that Congress should do everything it can to end the government’s ban on marijuana and fix the problems caused by the “War on Drugs.”
