Yesterday, President Joe Biden confirmed and endorsed a long-anticipated move by the Justice Department to formally reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
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Like all of you, the President agrees that placing cannabis in the same category as heroin "just doesn’t add up."
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While NORML has long argued that cannabis ultimately needs to be descheduled in order to harmonize federal law with the marijuana laws of the majority of US states, the administration’s endorsement of reclassification nonetheless marks a significant step forward.
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It validates the experiences of tens of millions of Americans, as well as tens of thousands of physicians, who have long recognized that cannabis possesses legitimate medical utility.
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It also dramatically shifts the political debate surrounding cannabis. Specifically, it delegitimizes many of the tropes historically exploited by opponents of marijuana policy reform. Claims that cannabis poses unique harms to health, or that it’s not useful for treating chronic pain and other ailments, have now been rejected by the very federal agencies that formerly perpetuated them. Going forward, these specious allegations should be absent from any serious conversations surrounding cannabis and how to best regulate its use.
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But the reclassification process is far from over.
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The Department of Justice will now initiate a period of public comment, whereby interested parties can weigh in on the matter of marijuana’s federal classification. Our political opponents are already galvanizing their members to flood the agency with comments. We must be ready to do the same.
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In the coming days, we will be contacting you with further instructions regarding how to submit your comments to the Justice Department demanding that the federal government remove cannabis from Schedule I. We must be united with one voice and one message: That cannabis possesses legitimate medical utility and that it never belonged in Schedule I. In particular, those who have had first-hand experience with marijuana as a medicine should consider sharing your story.
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