President Biden’s marijuana “review” could be a deadly trap

The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis politics and culture.

As the dust clears from President Biden’s bombshell marijuana announcement last week, a few things are becoming clear.

Biden’s statement granted presidential pardons to many federal prisoners convicted of marijuana possession offenses. And the president publicly acknowledged that putting cannabis on the same level as heroin “makes no sense.”

The pardons and the admission “makes no sense” are gains. Take her. But verifying marijuana’s Schedule I status is a big problem.

Those are both big deals. I know the pardon doesn’t cover all federal cannabis prisoners. Most estimates suggest that about 6,000 people will be affected by Biden’s move.

I’ve seen reactions making fun of this number. To which I say: are you kidding me? Six. Thousand. Persons. That’s 6,000 unjustly imprisoned fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends and neighbors. More specifically, that is six thousand people who will no longer be denied their personal freedom.

Take victory, my legalization allies. Fight for more tomorrow.

The “doesn’t make sense” line also matters. Biden has never felt comfortable embracing legalization. During the 2019-2020 campaign, he pledged to “decriminalize” cannabis, which is a politician’s way of saying I see the war on drugs is a disaster, but I still hate weed.

My guess is that a lot of people have spent a lot of time opening Joe Biden up to the fact that the Schedule I status of marijuana is both nonsensical and cruel.

Again, get the win.

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politics

President Biden pardons federal cannabis prisoners

Bruce Barcott and Calvin Stovall

October 6, 2022

It’s the third thing that worries me

The third thing that happened last week was President Biden saying he would “request” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to “initiate the process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal laws.”

That sounds great – first of all. But beware, dear friends. There is great danger in this request from the President.

First, look at Biden’s language. To paraphrase Chandler Bing, could it be more passive and abstruse? Anyone who has spent any length of time in or near a government agency knows that “let’s start a review process” is code for studying this to death.

Then there is this tricky formulation. Biden says he wants to review how marijuana is planned. Does that mean he wants to reconsider the current (absurd) position of marijuana as a Schedule I substance, or does he want to review the drug planning process himself?

You may think I’m picky, but when it comes to Presidential pronouncements, words and punctuation matter. They can be the difference between “Eat Grandma” and “Eat Grandma”.

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There is a long and treacherous road ahead of us

When in doubt, let’s agree with Biden and assume he genuinely wants to initiate a full administrative review of marijuana’s Schedule I status.

He can? Yes, but it’s not easy. Changing the list status of a substance can be done in two ways: administratively or by congressional action.

Legalization via Congress is (relatively) quick and easy. Pass legislation in the House and Senate, get the President to sign it, and you’re done. The MORE bill, which would end the federal ban on marijuana, has now passed the House of Representatives twice but currently lacks Senate support.

Legalization in the administrative process is difficult and time-consuming. A few years ago, Brookings Institute analysts John Hudak and Grace Wallack laid out the long road ahead. In the best-case scenario, a transfer or transfer of cannabis through the agency process would take years.

“It is a complex process influenced by scientific, medical, political and political forces,” Hudak and Wallack wrote.

The main agencies involved are the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services) and the Department of Justice. In short, FDA experts review the scientific evidence and public health implications, and then make a recommendation to the Attorney General. If everyone agrees, the AG begins the (long, drawn out) rulemaking process to reschedule or reschedule marijuana.

That’s a problem.

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Demand a rebuttal of past drug war lies

Executives in these agencies have spent their entire careers justifying cannabis’ Schedule I status. Remember that the DEA is part of the Department of Justice. As recently as 2016, DEA officials rejected a petition to reschedule cannabis, noting that it had “no currently acceptable medical use” and “high potential for abuse,” two of the requirements for inclusion as a Schedule I substance.

As this Vice report documents, DEA officials did not make this decision alone. They relied on the expert opinion of FDA officials, who ignored studies confirming the effectiveness of medical cannabis and instead cited studies like this one from 2000 that found squirrel monkeys like to get high, and used this to confirming the “abuse potential” of marijuana.”

Repealing the cannabis timeline would require the heads of two high-profile government agencies to dismiss their previous work and admit they were wrong about marijuana.

That will not happen.

Bureaucrats can slowly push this into the next presidency

Here are a few more likely scenarios.

This order is being slowly implemented by the FDA and DEA. They will run out the clock on the first Biden administration.

If Biden is defeated in 2024, his Republican successor will kill the Initiative. Even if the FDA and DEA come up with a shocking report endorsing the delisting of cannabis from the federal drug list, the new president will just circular it. Unfortunately this has happened before. If you are unfamiliar with the infamous story of President Nixon and the Shafer Commission, I invite you to revel in this infamous chapter of American history.

If President Biden wins a second term in 2024, the outcome could be even worse.

If Biden urges the DEA and FDA to act, his “fresh look” at marijuana’s status could result in a decision to keep it as a Schedule I substance or to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule II substance. Both would be fatal.

Schedule II signals that marijuana isn’t as dangerous as other Schedule I drugs, but it still has “high potential for abuse” and would only be legal federally as an FDA-approved drug. That means high-priced capsules of prescription Marinol, not $7 grams of medical marijuana flower.

This won’t end well

A review that results in cannabis remaining a Schedule I or Schedule II drug would only strengthen the federal ban. Politicians (and many voters) would see the criminalization of cannabis as a solved problem. All those senators who don’t want to vote for legalization will be let off the hook. They will throw up their hands and claim that “the FDA’s experts” decided the matter. Finished. Next.

I’m sorry it’s raining on this portion of the Biden parade. His federal pardon is fantastic news. His “makes no sense” comment is a step in the right direction. But knowing what we know about the DEA and FDA and the history of the president’s marijuana reviews, we should exercise extreme caution about Biden’s “fresh look.” It could be a deadly trap baited with good intentions.

The only way to end the federal ban is through action by Congress. That means opening the mind and changing the votes in the US Senate. It also means voting out the drug warriors who remain adamant in the face of new information and changing public attitudes.

Here’s the good news: You can do that on November 8th.

The Hay Maker: Panting Coast to Coast

Bruce Barcott

Leafly senior editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, investigations and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.

Check out Bruce Barcott’s articles

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