One of the leading reform organizations in drug policy is rallying its supporters to send a strong message to Donald Trump. Don’t just reschedule it, like his administration may be considering. Instead, fully legalize marijuana.
Drug Policy Alliance, which is urging the administration to reconsider a plan to shift cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule III on the Act’s Schedule III, sent out a message Monday stating that such reorganization would neither end the criminalization of marijuana nor fix the damages of its prohibition.
The group cited Trump’s comments about how no one should ever be incarcerated for minor marijuana possession. This is “why [Trump’s] administration must remove this from the CSA entirely.”
“But if his administration instead moves marijuana to Schedule III, it would still leave it criminalized under federal law—allowing people to continue being arrested and incarcerated for marijuana-related conduct,” DPA’s Cat Packer said. Schedule III eases tax burdens, but it doesn’t deal with the real issue. People will still be penalized for marijuana use while big corporations make money.
The action alert states: “We are aware that removing cannabis from the CSA is the only true way to end marijuana prohibition’s harms and to put the people before profits.” It links to a petition that people can sign, which DPA plans to deliver “over the next few weeks” to the White House.
DPA also said that the reform must include equity-based policies, such as expungements of prior marijuana convictions for those who have them, creating a regulatory structure for cannabis to improve public health, and investing tax revenues from cannabis sales in communities most affected by prohibition.
DPA said that anything less than de-scheduling marijuana is inadequate because this will criminalize the use of marijuana. It will put everyday Americans in danger of arrest, imprisonment, and being saddled with criminal record that could create barriers for housing, employment, and more. “We can’t allow these harmful effects to continue!”
In recent weeks, the President’s remarks that he will make a final decision within a week about scheduling have heightened tensions between drug groups and advocates.
In contrast with DPA, a coalition of prohibitionist, law enforcement and religious groups—led by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)—sent a letter to Trump on Monday that implored him to oppose the cannabis rescheduling proposal and leave the drug in Schedule I.
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Trump endorsed rescheduling on the campaign trail ahead of his second term—as well as industry banking access and a Florida adult-use legalization ballot initiative.
When he declared that he would soon make a decision to move marijuana from Schedule II to III, he stated that we are “only looking into that.” It is too early to determine how this issue will be resolved. He added that it was a “very complicated topic.”
“Some people like it. Some people hate it—people hate the whole concept of marijuana, because it does bad for the children [and] The president stated that it was bad for older people. “But we’re looking at reclassification, and we’ll make a determination over the next few weeks—and that determination, hopefully, will be the right one.”
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