Biden announces support for DOJ measure to reclassify marijuana
President Biden on Thursday publicly endorsed the Justice Department’s recommendation to loosen restrictions on marijuana, a long-expected measure that marks a historic shift in the nation’s drug policy.
“Far too many lives have been upended because of failed approach to marijuana, and I’m committed to righting those wrongs,” Biden said in a video posted on X.
The Justice Department, after receiving the go-ahead from the White House, published an official notice, opening a two-month period for the public to comment on the proposed change. The rule reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III controlled substance would not go into effect until afterward.
Marijuana would not be legalized federally, but would move out of the Schedule I category reserved for tightly controlled substances such as heroin and LSD. If the rule goes into effect, marijuana will join a category including prescription drugs such as ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.
Biden, in his statement, described it as an important move “toward reversing long-standing inequities,” citing earlier mass pardons he has offered for federal marijuana possession convictions. The video Thursday marked the first time Biden explicitly supported reclassification. Vice President Harris called marijuana’s Schedule I status “absurd” in March.
The move comes a little more than two weeks after Attorney General Merrick Garland recommended to the White House that marijuana be reclassified as a Schedule III substance. The recommendation was applauded by cannabis supporters who for decades have complained that the federal government exaggerated the dangers of the drug.
Marijuana’s Schedule I status means it is tightly controlled because the federal government sees no proven medical value and a high potential for abuse. Stripping that designation would provide researchers easier access to cannabis and allow marijuana companies to deduct business expenses from their tax bills - a boon for an industry that has struggled because of high operating costs and competition from the illicit market.
“Our ultimate goal is federal legalization, and we see Schedule III as a necessary and critical step along the way,” Edward Conklin, executive director of industry group U.S. Cannabis Council, said in a statement.
In his announcement, Biden said no one should be in jail for using or possessing marijuana. But legal experts say reclassification would have a limited effect on the criminalization of marijuana. The drug is still illegal under federal law, regardless of how it is classified, and most prosecutions happen in state courts. Few people go to federal prison for marijuana possession.
Some cannabis advocates say reclassification is an incremental step that doesn’t address the fundamental disconnect between the federal criminalization of the drug and the reality that a majority of Americans live in states where they can legally buy it. The implications of rescheduling for existing legal state markets are especially murky because marijuana has not been treated as a federally regulated medicinal product sold at pharmacies.
Meanwhile, cannabis critics fault the Biden administration for normalizing a drug that can still be harmful to individual and public health. Reclassification of marijuana - which is opposed by some former federal law enforcement officials, some Republicans in Congress and the anti-cannabis group Smart Approaches to Marijuana - could be delayed again by legal and regulatory challenges.
“Pot-profiteers have lobbied heavily to sell demonstrably harmful products, and now they will use this announcement to drive even more deliberate misinformation about these high-potency drugs to expand use and addiction,” Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the Office of National Drug Control Policy who leads Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said in a statement.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has not publicly addressed the move to loosen restrictions, leaving open the possibility he could attempt to reverse the Biden administration’s actions if he returns to the White House.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats have advocated for legislation to completely remove marijuana’s classification as a controlled substance. Democrats are hoping the shift on marijuana will prove popular with voters, particularly young ones, ahead of November’s election. Biden’s campaign has touted his relaxed stance toward marijuana as a key policy contrast.
“Joe Biden smokes sleepy Don on delivering for the American people,” James Singer, a spokesman for the president’s reelection campaign, said in a statement. “Donald Trump was wrong on marijuana policy and made America less safe, hurting young people and communities of color.”
In October 2022, Biden announced he would pardon anyone convicted of a federal crime for possessing marijuana and urged governors to do the same for people convicted of state crimes. In the same announcement, Biden directed federal health officials to reassess the drug’s classification, stressing that marijuana was scheduled higher than fentanyl and methamphetamine, which he described as the drugs driving the nation’s overdose epidemic.
The Food and Drug Administration, in a scientific analysis, concluded that “some credible scientific support” existed for some of the ways marijuana is being used as medicine. Based on the analysis, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that marijuana be recategorized.
Federal officials had privately battled for months about how to proceed, with health officials pushing to loosen restrictions on marijuana and drug-enforcement officials raising concerns about HHS’s approach.
In an April 11 memorandum sent to the attorney general, the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel largely sided with health officials. The DEA’s approach to determining whether marijuana has a currently accepted medical treatment in the United States is “impermissibly narrow,” Assistant Attorney General Christopher Fonzone wrote.
- - -
Dan Diamond contributed to this report.
Related Content
In Md. Senate race, Hogan pivots on abortion and backs Roe
‘All scraped up’ inside: Maui fire survivors grapple with health effects
Biden and oil companies like this climate tech. Many Americans do not.
