Despite the American cannabis industry being fully recreationally legal in nearly 25 states and several more states for medical purposes, cannabis remains at the highest and most dangerous level of the DEA’s Controlled Substances List. Due to the Schedule I status, cannabis is considered to be as harmful as heroin and LSD as well as possessing no known medicinal value whatsoever. This draconian, Nixon-era policy of cannabis receiving the worst of the worst status has remained in place since the very beginning of the Drug War in 1970. Since then, the majority of American states have legalized cannabis for medicinal usage, and there are now scores of medical cannabis advocates from every walk of life and background to showcase the plant’s undeniable medical alleviations that it can provide.
Not only does over half the country having access to medical cannabis disprove the claim of Schedule I that cannabis has no known medicinal value, but this supposedly “so damaging” substance sold over $848 million in Nevada alone. In states like Illinois with higher populations, industries are easily breaking the $1 billion record, even in the recent economic downturn the country is experiencing.
With the massive success of the industry in the face of many federal hurdles, there’s become serious discussion of either rescheduling cannabis on the Controlled Substances List or removing it entirely. But in the grand scheme of both federal law and how it impacts the nascent, yet expanding, American cannabis industry, what exactly would each option provide?
Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III would drastically alter the operations of cannabis business throughout the United States with the removal of the stiff and incredibly burdensome penalties of Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. With cannabis companies finally allowed to declare and deduct traditional items and expenses on their yearly taxes, cannabis businesses would already be in much better financial shape. Those businesses would almost certainly be able to receive FDIC-insured financial services, and cannabis employees may finally receive federally-backed loans to purchase a home.
Furthermore, a move to Schedule III would finally have the federal government acknowledge the widely known potential medicinal benefits to cannabis-based products. Cannabis would finally have a lower drug schedule than the tragically lethal fentanyl and several other far more dangerous substances. However, rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III would also have a new series of questions and challenges on the medical side.
For instance, a bulletin by the Congressional Research Service states that cultivation facilities that want to grow medical cannabis would have to register their facility with the DEA. And for a cannabis product to be considered a pharmaceutical drug, it would have to go through the arduous process of being approved by the FDA. Unauthorized medical cannabis distribution would remain just as illegal on the federal level and various state levels as it currently is, and a cannabis professional can only imagine how the FDA and DEA would regulate compared to the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board or the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board.
As for descheduling, cannabis would be removed entirely from the Controlled Substances List. Cannabis would still be regulated with the same standard as alcohol and tobacco, with a purchasing age limit and various rules about public consumption in place. The rules about which type of retail establishments that cannabis products are allowed to be sold in beyond dispensaries would be hard to determine off the bat, but descheduling would remove the burdensome costs of Section 280E and the multitude of other ways that the current federal policy of cannabis hinders legal operations.
Just a couple days ago, a group of 11 Democratic senators called on the Biden administration and the DEA to entirely deschedule cannabis. In their group letter, the Senators mentioned how little criminal justice reform would come from simply rescheduling cannabis.
“Rescheduling would do little to rectify the most severe harms of the current system.” the Senators wrote in their letter. “Many of the CSA’s [Controlled Substance Act] criminal penalties for marijuana will continue as long as marijuana remains in the CSA, because those penalties are based on the quantity of marijuana involved, not the drug’s schedule status. Thus, criminal penalties (including prison sentences, fines, and asset forfeiture) for recreational marijuana use, and for medical use of marijuana products that lack federal approval, would still exist, disproportionately penalizing Black and Brown communities.”
It will undoubtedly be a surprising new chapter for the American cannabis industry whether the United States federal government decides to reschedule over descheduling or vice versa. Either way will be beneficial for the cannabis industry compared to the current situation, but may also bring new and previously unforeseen sets of questions and issues.
2020-2025 @ All Rights Reserved CofC LV
