President Joseph Biden has caused shockwaves within the cannabis industry. The Drug Enforcement Agency was asked by the Biden administration last year to revisit the classification of marijuana, forcing a recent effort from the Department of Health and Human Services to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. However, the question that very few are discussing is whether or not they should move ahead with such a measure, especially since the impacts and implications are little to unknown.
First, some basic facts should be established to learn how we have gotten to this point. In 2021, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Marijuana Regulation and Tax Act and opened the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). This move neglects to mention specific health effects of marijuana, like carcinogens ingested when smoking marijuana, affected brain health (impacts on attention span, memory and learning) and issues related to mental health and gateway usage of other Schedule I, II or III narcotics or drugs. Similar to the national debate on many aspects of marijuana, the 2021 New York Legislation also was missing these adverse health effects of the drug in consideration. Additionally, though many supporters of such bills have legitimate concerns regarding keeping marijuana illegal, the critics are widely shut-out and are not heard from when compared to the visibility that marijuana supporters receive from the media, state governments and think-tanks or lobbying groups out of D.C. Even NIH publishings or CDC findings relating to marijuana and mental health show that there are detriments to society with reclassification of greater use of the drug.
Nevertheless, there is a more outstanding issue that keeps bringing us back to the position we are in. It happens in the following steps repeatedly: 1) A president needs good-guy points before elections and makes a last-ditch effort to save poll numbers with critical demographics. 2) An extensive investigation and debate ensues, where seemingly two sides emerge and their extreme points are the only ones mainstream media outlets cover. 3) As directed by the president and fearing for their jobs, government agencies make incremental and minor moves on the order given to them. 4) Said president then takes credit for the positive impacts and uses words to describe the move, like “most ambitious,” “unfinished” or “now is the time for turning,” prompting further “strides.” 5) The process starts over once more with no severe change to show for it.
However, looking abroad at marijuana can also be a helpful comparison tool. We will find that only 30 countries have decriminalized recreational marijuana. Foreign allies and adversaries alike to the United States, such as the U.K., Russia, China and Spain, all have some hard or soft restrictions on the drug. Why? That is because they have some legislative or medical thinking behind making it difficult to acquire. Take the U.K., for example, where they have a history of marijuana laws backed by medicine, which supports their legislative reasoning for restrictions on marijuana, a particular series of thinking that keeps the impressionable minds of their population from going down paths that are nearly impossible to get out of.
However, by lessening the legal impacts of possessing marijuana, it is arguable that it would do two things:
1) It will only benefit the government. Reclassification means more taxes that the federal government gets to rake in. By classifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug (the same level as ketamine, codeine or anabolic steroids), people will be more inclined to seek the drug and use it, which will only skyrocket the number of users, increase taxpayer dollars used to prosecute offenders on marijuana-related charges and increase demand for the drug and put a further strain on the national security crisis of our open southern border and the drugs crossing into our country. This is not a move focused on the individual or the plurality of constituents, but about money that bureaucrats and legislators will take in from the sale of marijuana that will cause our nation to be gripped tighter in the government’s chokehold and our liberties restricted yet again.
2) It would cause a push for people to see marijuana as completely fine and without detrimental effects to the self or society. The United States Sentencing Commission published in early 2023 states that offenders arrested for marijuana possession were overwhelmingly male (85.5% of offenders), 2/3 of offenders were sentenced to prison and 10.2% had no prior criminal history. If the outlook on marijuana is made less severe through reclassification, our male population will be further impacted, including more arrests and increased tensions in the United State’s prison issue. More people who would be better off in life will have an irreversible arrest record, making it harder to be a contributing member of society and hold a job that fulfills their potential. Imagine how these numbers will increase, and these problems will look good when new ones take their place.
The Drug Policy Alliance recognizes this debate that President Biden has presented with reclassification and has argued that this move will only lead to deportations, further problematic debates regarding federalizing laws on marijuana that benefits one side of the aisle and, most importantly, old arrests will not be expunged.
Because of views and arguments such as this one and the polarization surrounding the debate over marijuana, Biden’s reclassification move is simply an ultra-partisan tool for 2024. This move is one to obtain votes for the Democratic party in 2024, mainly from prior offenders who feel they owe Biden a second look because of his opinion that criminals who have been found guilty of crimes relating to marijuana possession have faced “needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities.” If this is how the commander-in-chief approaches our legal system and felons charged for breaking the law, perhaps other claims of misconduct in a judiciary system overseen by Biden are more plausible than they seem.
Though we are a fair while away from there being any solution on the matter from the Drug Enforcement Administration, we should pump the brakes and take a step back to see if this move is for the better of our nation, a political stunt to get reputation points from likely voters, thoroughly thought-out and inclusive of all possible detriments or even something that our globalist-leaning government sees as something that is globally-accepted. The matter of marijuana and its effects should be more thoroughly investigated. It is concerning when the qualifications to see marijuana as beneficial are also used to determine if it should be legal.
Michael Duke, GSB ’26, is undecided from Scottsdale, Ariz.
