Potential reclassification of cannabis prompts objections from some federal officials who believe move is half-baked
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WASHINGTON—Federal officials are at odds over President Biden’s push to loosen restrictions on marijuana, a move some in the White House hope to see ahead of an election in which he needs the support of younger voters.
The president’s latest advocacy came during Thursday’s State of the Union address, in which he touted his efforts to expunge marijuana-possession convictions and soften how the drug is categorized under federal law.
Under prompting from the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services last year recommended removing marijuana from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs, where it has been for more than 50 years, alongside heroin and LSD. But some counterparts within the Drug Enforcement Administration are resistant, saying the drug’s medicinal benefits remain unproven and that it has a high potential for abuse, people familiar with the matter said.
Officials at the DEA, which has the final say on the designation, remain concerned about modern cannabis strains that can be many times as potent as those that were common years ago, the people said. Some agency officials also think more research is needed about marijuana’s long-term health effects.
The DEA is continuing its review, Administrator Anne Milgram said in an interview, but she declined to elaborate. HHS officials in recent weeks have asked the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to weigh in on legal issues related to moving pot to a less-restrictive status, the people said.
Representatives for the Justice Department and White House said the matter remained under review. An HHS spokesman declined to comment.
The disagreements come as more than half of states have legalized marijuana for some purpose, and as many Democrats and some Republicans take a more tolerant view of its use.
Some state officials, who once saw the drug as a scourge, now view it as a new source of tax revenue. A federal move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug would mark a seismic shift, removing burdens for the industry—including by potentially opening access to banking services—and reducing or eliminating criminal penalties for possession.
If pot is downgraded, “it fundamentally changes everything,” said Bill Van Faasen, a director at the cannabis company Acreage Holdings. “It acknowledges there are medicinal benefits and invites in all the elements of society—providers, health plans, institutional banks, investors—to begin building out a responsible, regulated and structured industry.”
Public polling data has shown that younger adults have been particularly supportive of liberalizing marijuana policies. Biden will likely need commanding support among those voters in November.
Voters under age 30 preferred him over Donald Trump by 25 percentage points in 2020, according to AP VoteCast, a big survey of people who voted that year. That gap appears to have narrowed considerably. Biden led by only 10 points among voters under 30 in a Wall Street Journal poll conducted last month, 50% to 40%, in a head-to-head test match against Trump.
The Biden administration has taken a largely hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement, with Attorney General Merrick Garland saying he doesn’t view federal marijuana prosecutions as the best use of the Justice Department’s limited resources.
Biden in 2022 pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and called upon regulators to review whether the drug should be reclassified, saying “it doesn’t make sense” that the government controls pot more tightly than cocaine or fentanyl.
Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, a category reserved for drugs that have a high potential for abuse with no offsetting accepted medical use. Drugs that have some medically acceptable uses, such as fentanyl, oxycodone and Adderall fall under Schedule II.
The DEA refused to change pot’s classification in 2016, with the agency’s then-head saying he was bound by statute to leave marijuana in the most restrictive category because studies of the drug didn’t support a switch.
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HHS in August recommended the DEA make marijuana a Schedule III drug, alongside testosterone and ketamine, a move hailed by Democrats as the first step in lessening what they see as harm caused by draconian pot laws. Federal scientists said in their
recommendation that marijuana isn’t as vulnerable to abuse as other controlled substances, has some therapeutic benefits that are backed by science and produces “less serious outcomes” than other drugs, even though it can cause dependence.
The DEA, according to rules created by Congress, can only reschedule marijuana if it has scientific proof of its medical effectiveness.
“The science does not support rescheduling of marijuana,” said former DEA Administrator Timothy Shea, who served in the role at the end of the Trump administration. “Doing that will harm public health and safety.”
Any agency decision will be subject to a public-comment period before it is made final.
