Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall recently joined 10 other states in a letter opposing the rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III proposed by the Department of Justice in May.
Marijuana has been a Schedule I drug since Congress enacted the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. In 2022, President Joe Biden asked Attorney General Merrick Garland and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to launch a scientific review of how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. After receiving HHS's recommendations in August 2023 and consulting with the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Garland initiated the rulemaking process to transfer marijuana to Schedule III.
Federal statute defines Schedule III drugs as "substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence." Schedule I drugs are defined as "drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," such as heroin, LSD, ecstasy and peyote.
Schedule III drugs include anabolic steroids and testosterone, products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dose, and ketamine.
In the 40-page letter, Marshall and the other state attorneys general argue that the rescheduling of cannabis would cause adverse effects on society at large.
"The Biden-Harris administration's rush to legalize marijuana is outside the bounds of the DOJ's authority and will lead to disastrous consequences," Marshall said. "This is not the first time this Administration has failed to 'follow the science' in favor of a cheap ploy to desperately score some points with voters before November."
The AGs argue that expanding access to marijuana causes a host of secondary problems, such as increasing the number and severity of motor vehicle accidents and creating issues in enforcing laws that prohibit driving while intoxicated. It also argues that marijuana is linked to rising homelessness and welfare dependence, reduced workplace productivity and increases in anxiety and suicidal ideation. And, despite suggestions to the contrary, it does not reduce the consumption of opioids or other "hard drugs" like cocaine and heroin.
The letter also argues that rescheduling marijuana would be "unlawful" because the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has "consistently and repeatedly rejected requests to move marijuana off Schedule I, and the relevant facts have not changed."
"Nothing material—in either the realm of science or law—has changed since 2016 when DEA last concluded that it was appropriate to maintain marijuana's placement on Schedule I," the letter reads. "Indeed, HHS implicitly recognizes as much, insofar as it advocates for the jettison of a longstanding, data-driven-and-science-based standard employed by DEA in 2016 and its replacement by a much less rigorous test of its own creation, tailor-made to permit marijuana's rescheduling. That advocacy, embraced by OLC's recent opinion, is seriously misguided. It threatens to undermine the federal regulatory regime that ensures the medicine Americans rely on is safe and effective rather than false cures peddled by snake-oil salesmen."
Other states in the coalition of attorneys general include Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, and South Dakota.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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