WASHINGTON: The administration of US President Joe Biden plans to reclassify marijuana as a more dangerous drug, a historic move that will bring federal policy more in line with public opinion, sources said on Tuesday.
The US Department of Justice is expected to deliver its “drug reform” advice to the White House on Tuesday.
That’s after Joe Biden became the first president in 2022 to face a federal investigation into the matter.
The problem could win Biden votes when he faces Republican Donald Trump in a tough election this November, especially among young people courting the Democratic Party.
Since the 1970s, marijuana has been classified as a “Schedule I” drug along with heroin, ecstasy, and LSD, due to its lack of medical acceptance and potential for abuse.
But according to the source, the prescription has been reduced by Schedule III painkillers, which contain ketamine and codeine, and a lower probability of addiction.
“This is the next step in official planning,” he said. This process will still take a long time for public comment and completion.
Paul Armentano, vice president of advocacy group NORML, said of the upcoming move: “It is important that federal agencies, especially the DEA and FDA, publicly acknowledge for the first time what many patients and advocates have known for decades: that it is safe and effective.
But he said the substance’s redefinition doesn’t go too far and should be removed entirely from the Controlled Substances Act, which requires legislation.
In a Pew Research Center survey last month, 88 percent of Americans said the drug should be legal or recreational.
Cannabis was first made federally illegal in 1937, and critics say the drug is mainly associated with jazz music and Mexican immigrants.
Cannabis is now a multibillion-dollar business in the United States, and more than half of all states have legalized the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana, including California and New York.
But because the drug is a nationally controlled substance, everyone involved is still technically breaking state law.
The ban made it more difficult for businesses to access banking services, halted federal funding for medical drug research and prevented interstate commerce, as well as federal regulation of best practices and protocols.
After Canada fully legalized marijuana in 2018, it began issuing a lifetime entry ban to Canadians who answered “yes” to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at checkpoints asking if they had taken the drug.
The agency warned New Mexico residents that it will continue to pursue offenders caught with the substance at traffic checkpoints despite the state’s legalization.
Although Native American territories live in self-governing territory, they are subject to raids by the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Marijuana advocates warn that without legislation, the incoming presidential administration could seek out businesses and consumers even in states where the plant is legal, regardless of legalization.
President Trump’s first former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, threatened to do so, but federal prosecutors ultimately decided against it.
