Rescheduling Vs Descheduling: What Does It All Mean?

On December 2nd, 2024, the DEA will hold its first hearing to talk about the potential rescheduling of marijuana* from a Schedule I drug  to Schedule III.  While technically the real hearing (when they will discuss evidence and hear testimony) has been postponed,—which has been confusing for those in both the pro-descheduling and pro-rescheduling crowd—this December 2nd hearing is still on the docket. It just won’t get very much done. 

All of this comes following the Biden administration requesting the Department of Health and Human Services  (HHS) do a review on the current scheduling of marijuana in 2022. The HHS did just that, and two years later sent notice to the DEA of their review with recommendations. 

The HHS had had the FDA conduct a medical and scientific review of marijuana under what is known as eight factor analysis—considering the drugs abuse liability, evidence of its pharmacological effect, current scientific knowledge, history and patterns of abuse, scope; duration; and significance of abuse, risk to public health, etc. This is a process they routinely use to determine the scheduling of drugs.  The FDA argued that marijuana already has currently accepted medical uses (or CAMU), among other things, and their review was sent to the DEA, who scheduled a hearing, and that is where we are at today. 

So what does that mean for us? And what do the schedules mean? If the DEA decides everything, do our opinions get to be heard—and what would the changing of the schedule do to the current dispensary industry model in legal states like Colorado or California? What about the existing model for medical dispensaries? These are the questions that activists, stoners, and store owners are all asking themselves, and the answers aren’t quite clear—

Under the CSA (Controlled Substances Act), a Schedule I drug is “a substance considered to have a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use, and no accepted safety for use under medical supervision”. Schedule I drugs currently include heroin, LSD, ecstasy, and peyote as well as marijuana. A Schedule II drug, considered to be less dangerous than Schedule I, would be something like cocaine, fentanyl, or other opioids. Whereas a Schedule III drug is considered to be, “a substance having moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”  Drugs in this category include Tylenol with codeine, ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone, and, potentially, marijuana–if the DEA finds itself in agreement with the review submitted by the FDA vis a vis the HHS. While many argue this is better than its current status, there are also many who believe it is just a move to get the marijuana industry into the hands of the few, and Big Pharma. 

As we’ve already said, consequences of rescheduling marijuana aren’t quite clear–aside from the fact that it would do nothing to change the current legality of the dispensary model we have. It also wouldn’t change the criminality level of the average consumer. Exact repercussions will depend on the lengths the DEA and federal officers will go to to enforce this new scheduling, especially as it pertains to medical dispensaries and growers in legal states, as well as patients who home grow their own flower legally now. The lawyer Josh Schiller stated, “There is a question as to whether recreational stores can continue to exist…or whether they need to obtain some form of licensing to comply with whatever regulations are forthcoming…” In other words, the recreational industry could either be largely unaffected, aside from the tax laws that we are about to discuss, or they could be negatively impacted by the enforcement of new rules and regulations that don’t make sense with this current model. 

On the bright side, businesses have some of their worries assuaged by the fact that a reschedule to Schedule III means that section 280E of the tax code would no longer make it impossible to take deductions for their businesses—loosening the grip of high tax payments on those in the industry. Although, the rescheduling won’t allow for banking stipulations to lessen—that won’t happen until the SAFE Banking Act has passed. Though many believe that a move to Schedule III will prompt more conservative lawmakers to get on board, and give them an excuse to give to their more conservative constituents.

The rescheduling of marijuana, and the way it has been handled, has left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths. There is a fear that by rescheduling cannabis instead of removing it from the purview of the Controlled Substances Act entirely, that the government would be prioritizing pharmaceutical companies’ access to the plant over the access of individual people who need it. Especially since Big Pharma has historically been at odds with the community of individuals who have pushed to end the prohibition of cannabis entirely. Even the fact that the DEA, HHS, and President of the United States still use the language Marijuana, when that is not the scientific name of the plant, is a red flag to most individuals involved in the cannabis community—not to mention a carry-over from the racially motivated “Marihuana Prohibition Act of 1937”. 

In response, we’ve seen groups and individuals coming together to petition not for the rescheduling of marijuana, but for its removal from the purview of the CSA altogether—as known as Descheduling. This has turned into a movement known as Deschedule NOT Reschedule. There are petitions, events, a Freedom Tour—an entire coalition of individuals asking the DEA to remove marijuana entirely—even the DEA’s own Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis Young in 1988 stated, “marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man,” and that, “It would be unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”—and boy, howdy, is there even more evidence to support the full decriminalization and Descheduling of marijuana now. 

If you want to become involved with the Deschedule NOT Reschedule movement, we will be linking it below, along with some supplementary sources if you’d like to do more research on your own!! As always, the plant belongs to the people, and it’s our duty and right to be educated and informed—we’re glad we could help you do that today. 

https://chng.it/28q4XGPzYf ——> Change.org petition, contains quotes, sources, and calls to action that you can implement today. 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4179304-hhs-sends-recommendation-to-dea-on-rescheduling-marijuana/ —-> an article published directly after the HHS sent its recommendations

*We would like to note that in this blog post the word “marijuana” is used because that is the way cannabis is referred to in this legislation. We would like to clarify that in reality we are referring to cannabis that is not compliant with the federal U.S. 2018 Farm Bill. 

Photo Credit: https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos/legalization