A coalition consisting of law enforcement, religious and anti-marijuana organizations is urging Donald Trump to reject a cannabis rescheduling plan that his administration says it will make a decision on in the coming weeks.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a coalition led by Smart Approaches to Marijuana sent a letter to Trump Monday. In the letter the group said they “strongly recommend that you do not reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance” under Controlled Substances Act. Trump had endorsed this move during the campaign.
A signatory of this letter is the Drug Enforcement Association of Federal Narcotics Agents. They represent personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration. That’s the agency where the current cannabis reform proposal sits.
In a recent press release, SAM’s President Kevin Sabet stated that “President Trump can make a statement for the safety and security of all children in America by rejecting the flawed proposal to redistribute marijuana.” “Marijuana, or any other raw plant for that matter, hasn’t been approved by FDA as a medical product. It is unlikely to ever happen. This drug is highly addictive and has a high abuse risk. “That’s why Schedule I has been there for years and must remain.”
Cannabis was previously classified under Schedule I, but after a thorough scientific analysis by the Biden Administration it proposed moving cannabis to Schedule III. The plant would not be federally legalized, but state-licensed cannabis businesses could take federal tax breaks and certain barriers for research were removed.
In their letter, they acknowledged that arguments that marijuana shouldn’t be classified with heroin were “politically salient” and “easy to understand.” The organizations said, however, that “reform advocates fundamentally misunderstand drug scheduling.”
Contrary to what is commonly believed, the drug schedule does not represent a harm index. The balance is between the medically accepted use and potential abuse of a substance.
Among the other notable signatories of the letter are the Family Research Council. NAADAC The Association for Addiction Professionals. CADCA And the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
The letter disputes Biden’s conclusions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Review. They claim that marijuana does not have any accepted medical benefits and that it has an abuse potential high enough to warrant its Schedule I classification.
This then states that “rescheduling” would give dispensaries and dealers of drugs a tax break worth $2 billion yearly.
According to the groups, reclassifying marijuana would undermine a commonsense tax break for illicit drug traffickers. The groups said that Schedule III would allow street dealers as well as dispensaries to get tax breaks for marketing or promoting the sale addictive drugs.
This loophole would not only benefit domestic traffickers. International drug cartels, already operating thousands of marijuana farms across the country—many licensed at the state level—would also qualify for tax breaks. The marijuana industry is already generating billions of dollars for these operations that are linked with human trafficking, other crimes and serious offenses. The federal government would benefit from rescheduling marijuana taxes, but not law-abiding American companies.”
They also said that putting marijuana on Schedule III could hinder federal workplace drug-testing mandates. This would mean “roads and skies” would be less safe.
In partnership with White House, President Obama’s nominee for the position of head of a major federal agency in charge on traffic safety has said he will “double-down” to raise awareness regarding the risks associated with marijuana impaired driving.
This letter also claims that the proposed reform will “hurt our children” as rescheduling of marijuana would be interpreted by youths to mean that it’s less harmful.
The letter concluded that rescheduling would ignore science and give tax breaks for corporate marijuana traffickers and corporations, increase road danger, and send a wrong message to the youth. We strongly urge that you reject the rescheduling and maintain marijuana as Schedule I.
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. He said that his decision would be made within weeks but did not indicate which way he intends to go.
Trump stated at the time, that at this point we are “only examining that issue” and that it is too early to predict how that will be resolved. He added that “it’s an extremely 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.”
Philip Steffan provided the photo.