Just because “everyone is doing it,” doesn’t make it good. No better substance exemplifies that sentiment in the present age than marijuana. Some states have, unfortunately, gone down this path – from the ever-present stench of weed wafting through city streets to the fact that daily cannabis use has surpassed that of alcohol, marijuana is hard to escape. Its widespread acceptance is why the drug industry has been pushing to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. Earlier this month, President Trump announced that a decision on that proposal was imminent. But to keep weed from becoming an even more dangerous and obliquitous part of society, there is only one correct answer – marijuana must remain a Schedule I drug.
During his last year in office, President Biden’s Department of Justice proposed reclassifying marijuana. The draft rule went through a public comment period. It was supposed to receive a hearing in January, but that was cancelled after the Trump administration took office and the process has been frozen ever since. But the pro-weed lobby has been pushing the President to finalize the rule.
Advocates for reclassifying marijuana argue that the drug should not be in the same category as more notoriously hard drugs like heroin, that marijuana has health benefits and is widely used. However, that belies a misunderstanding of what, exactly, the drug schedule is. It is not a “harm index” that indicates how dangerous a drug may be to an individual. It does not determine what the criminal penalties for possession or whether or not it is legal nationwide.
Rather, the drug schedule it is a technical legal classification that categorizes drugs according to their potential for abuse and accepted medical value. Marijuana meets the technical definition of Schedule I because it has a high potential for abuse and has no FDA-approved use. Whether or not people use it for medicinal purposes does not change the fact that marijuana is an easily and often abused substance.
In contrast, Schedule III drugs have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” That definition does not describe marijuana in any way, shape or form. Rescheduling marijuana in that way would send the message that the drug is safe for consumption, which a growing body of research shows is clearly not true, starting with its addictive quality. A study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that about 1 in 10 marijuana users develop a cannabis use disorder. When use begins earlier than the age of 18, that jumps to 1 in 6.
The marijuana of today is also far stronger than that of previous generations. In the 1970s, during the age of stereotypical pot-smoking hippies, marijuana only had about 1-3% of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Today, the average cannabis flower has about 15-30% THC. Some concentrated products, like oils and edibles, can have levels up to 90%.
Numerous studies show just how dangerous today’s marijuana is. Regular use of the drug is being increasingly linked to psychosis. One study done in 2022 showed a correlation between the number of cannabis dispensaries in an area and rates of psychosis presenting in nearby emergency departments. Other research shows that cannabis use can lead to changes in brain structure in young adults, leading to permanent issues with memory, learning and attention. Marijuana use is also tied to negative effects on fertility, from lower sperm counts in men, disrupted menstrual cycles in women, and various effects on babies if used during pregnancy.
Despite the plethora of harms that come from marijuana use, the industry has a lot – namely, billions of dollars – to gain from rescheduling the drug. Currently, Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Service prevents businesses from claiming deductions from expenses incurred from “trafficking” in Schedule I and II substances. So even though marijuana is legal for medical and recreational use in most states, dispensaries are penalized by the tax code. By changing it to a Schedule III drug, the industry will be awarded with a massive tax break for cannabis businesses.
That explains why they preposterously want to jump to a Schedule III classification, instead of even proposing a Schedule II classification, which are drugs that can have some accepted medical use but that still have a high potential for abuse.
For his part, when President Trump (notably a teetotaler) announced that a decision was coming, he added that “Some people like it. Some people hate it,” he said. “Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children.” He also said, “I’ve heard great things having to do with medical [marijuana] and bad things having to do with just about everything else.” And he recently appointed a new Administrator to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Terrance Cole, who has a long history of speaking out publicly about the dangers of marijuana use.
Let us pray for the Administration as it considers this important matter. While it would seem that the Administration would lean in the right direction, the marijuana industry is powerful and many so-called libertarians within conservative circles misunderstand this issue. So, until the President gives his final word, the battle is not over.
That’s why Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee joined 50 other organizations in sending a letter to President Trump, asking him to leave marijuana where it is as a Schedule I drug. While Big Cannabis continues to push for marijuana normalization, we will continue to fight for safer communities and families.
