Friend, the Associated Press just reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is proposing rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I drug, the most restrictive class, to a Schedule III drug, a less restrictive class. 

While changes to our failed federal marijuana laws are long overdue, we know that rescheduling is insufficient! 

Rescheduling marijuana would continue marijuana criminalization at the federal level. And most penalties, including those for simple possession, would continue as long as marijuana remains anywhere on the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

We all deserve a federal framework for marijuana that upholds the health, wellbeing, and safety of our communities – particularly Black communities who have borne the brunt of our country’s racist enforcement of marijuana laws. To achieve federal decriminalization, marijuana must be removed from the CSA by descheduling it. Descheduling marijuana is the only way to put an end to federal prohibition and the harms it’s causing to our communities. 

Public comments on the DEA’s rescheduling proposal will open soon, which will give supporters like you a chance to weigh in directly. We’ll let you know when that happens so you can make your voice heard. But as we wait, it’s crucial for us to speak up right now. Tell Biden that rescheduling falls short and demand descheduling to decriminalize marijuana nationwide. 

We all deserve common-sense marijuana reform that keeps people safe, benefits our communities, and reinvests in the people who have been most harmed by marijuana enforcement. And on the 2020 campaign trail, President Biden made a campaign promise to do just that by decriminalizing marijuana and expunging marijuana records. But his DEA’s proposal to reschedule fails to deliver on his promises. 

Marijuana criminalization would continue to harm individuals, families and communities across the United States. Rescheduling would not: 

• End marijuana arrests;
• Release anyone in prison for marijuana;
• Restore rights and access to public benefits, such as housing assistance; 
• Stop marijuana-based deportations;  
• Protect state marijuana regulatory programs or their patients or consumers;
• Protect workers in the marijuana industry; or
• End this country’s failed approach to marijuana or right the wrongs of criminalization.

Rescheduling marijuana is not a policy solution for federal marijuana criminalization. Descheduling and legalizing marijuana the right way isn’t just good policy, it’s popular with voters, too. Please take action now in support of descheduling marijuana.

We’ve arrived at this pivotal moment due to decades of work with supporters like you. And we are working with United for Marijuana Decriminalization, a coalition of the nation’s leading marijuana policy reform advocates and industry leaders, to ensure our voices are heard.

President Biden must follow through on his promises to end marijuana criminalization. And we can’t stop there. He must also reinvest in the people and communities that have been most harmed by the war on drugs. Dozens of states have already legalized marijuana for adult use. It’s time our federal government took action on marijuana laws that actually work for the people.