Lawmakers Urge DEA To Stop Dragging Its Feet On Weed

A group of 21 Democratic lawmakers urged the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday to promptly remove marijuana from the federal governments list of restricted drugs, where it currently sits in the same category as heroin. 

Though marijuana is widely used and ... associated with fewer adverse outcomes than alcohol, it remains in the most restrictive schedule, the lawmakers wrote in a letter  to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. This placement produces a cascade of severe penalties for marijuana users and businesses, including for criminal records, immigration statuses, employment, taxation, health care, public housing, social services, and more.

It is time for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to act, the lawmakers wrote. 

The letter, first reported by HuffPost, was led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). It comes a year-and-a-half after President Joe Biden ordered a review of pots classification as a scheduled drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and nearly eight months since the Department of Health and Human Services recommended moving cannabis from Schedule I, the most restrictive, to Schedule III. 

Biden campaigned on decriminalizing the use of cannabis, but progress toward that promise has been slow. In October 2022, Biden directed HHS and the Department of Justice to review how pot is scheduled under federal law. At the same time, he pardoned every person convicted of simple marijuana possession an important but largely symbolic step, as no one had been incarcerated in federal prison solely on possession charges. 

The Controlled Substances Act divides drugs into categories ranging from Schedule I to Schedule V. Cannabis is currently a Schedule I drug, the category for the most dangerous substances that have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use. Its in the same category as heroin and is classified as more dangerous than fentanyl or cocaine, which are Schedule II.

This scheduling decision was made against the political backdrop of the early 1970s, reportedly as part of President Nixons efforts to use cannabis prohibition to target the antiwar left and black people, read a previous letter sent by many of the same Democrats in January, citing a report by Vera, a group that works to end mass incarceration. 

In August 2023, HHS recommended that the DEA reschedule marijuana to Schedule III, the category for substances that have an accepted medical use and a lower potential for abuse than Schedule I or II drugs, but which may still lead to physical or psychological dependence. 

After HHS announcement, a Texas lawyer named Matt Zorn obtained through a public records request the agencys 250-page scientific review, explaining the rationale for its recommendation.

That review made clear that cannabis does not meet the medical or scientific requirements for Schedule I, the lawmakers wrote in the January letter. Rescheduling cannabis wouldnt rectify the most severe harms of the current system, they wrote. Namely, rescheduling would do little to reduce the criminal penalties associated with pot use which have long disproportionately affected Black and brown communities.

Rescheduling is intellectually dishonest, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) wrote in a memo . Just as cannabis does not meet the strict criteria of a Schedule I controlled substance, it also does not meet the specific criteria that define schedules II through V.

Recreational cannabis is currently legal in 24 states, accounting for where 53% of Americans live. But in 2022, there were at least a quarter of a million arrests for cannabis-related offenses. 

Last month, DEA senior prevention program manager Rich Lucey said on the agencys podcast that it can take anywhere from three to six months to review HHS scheduling recommendation.

It has now been eight months, the lawmakers noted on Wednesday. 

The longer marijuana remains scheduled in the CSA, the longer our communities face senselessly severe penalties and the longer the marijuana laws of the majority of U.S. states remain in conflict with federal law, they wrote. Right now, the Administration has the opportunity to resolve more than 50 years of failed, racially discriminatory marijuana policy.

This story has been updated to reflect that 21 lawmakers signed the letter. 

Read the full letter: