WASHINGTON — Five states will vote next week on whether to join the 21 states and territories that have legalized recreational marijuana for adults. But the federal government is still stuck on whether to remove the plant from Schedule I of the federal drug code — a category reserved for highly addictive substances with no medical benefit.
The Biden administration’s Oct. 6 announcement that it would revisit that classification comes after previous, years-long reviews of marijuana’s categorization fell flat, and experts are split on whether things might be different this time.
“If history is to serve as any precedent, I wouldn’t count on this review being wrapped up at a time when there is still a Biden administration,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
But Rosalie Pacula, a health policy professor at the University of Southern California, believes cannabis will ultimately be rescheduled, pointing to a 2020 change made by the United Nations that loosened control at the international level that the U.S. supported.
“And so I think that reconsideration of our own scheduling here in the U.S. is just a natural extension of how we voted in the world meeting,” she said.
Research needs
The U.S. policy debate is largely centered on the question of whether more research is needed on potential benefits and harms — particularly around potency — since the market is awash in so many different products. The vast majority of states have approved some form of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
“There are so many indications for which the dispensaries are selling marijuana, and yet the evidence for most of them is basically non-existent,” said National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow, citing cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and attention deficit disorder.
There is some evidence marijuana can help with problems like chronic pain, loss of appetite and symptoms of dementia, she added. There are now also FDA-approved drugs using cannabis compounds.
But the way people consume the plant, such as smoking, can have negative effects too. Volkow also cited concerns around psychosis and impacts on brain development.
NIDA has been following nearly 12,000 children in an ongoing study since 2015, when the children were 9 or 10. Those kids are now 15, around the age when many marijuana users first start. The agency is also launching a medical marijuana registry to track how patients use the drug.
But Armentano dismissed the argument for more research before legalization as a “load of crap,” pointing to the large body of global evidence easily available through sites like PubMed. He said the lengthy administrative process is why Congress should step in instead.
“Congress enacted a bad law,” he said of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. “It’s their responsibility to go and either amend or repeal that law, not to rely on some bureaucratic agencies to do so.”
A House-passed research bill that would speed decisions on marijuana research applications from scientists and cultivators could potentially clear the Senate in the lame duck.
