WaPo | Congress and President Obama are
under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense,
it doesn’t solve the state/federal conflict over marijuana (de-scheduling would be better).
But more important, it wouldn’t fix the broken scheduling system.
Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the
Controlled Substances Act.
The
Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for
most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably
omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either
subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II
through V) — or completely prohibited, otherwise unregulated and left to
criminals to manufacture and distribute (Schedule I). The scheduling
of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific
process — with some strange results.
For
instance, while methamphetamine and cocaine are Schedule II drugs,
making them available for medical use, marijuana is scheduled alongside
PCP and heroin as a Schedule I drug, which prohibits any medical use.
Making matters worse, the CSA gives law enforcement — not scientists or
health officials — the final say on how new drugs should be scheduled
and whether or not old drugs should be rescheduled. Unsurprisingly, law
enforcement blocks reform.
Starting in 1972, the Drug Enforcement Administration obstructed a formal request to reschedule marijuana for 16 years. After being forced by the courts to make a decision, the agency held two years of hearings. The DEA chief administrative law judge
who held the hearings and considered the issue concluded that marijuana
in its natural form is “one of the safest therapeutically active
substances known to man” and should be made available for medical use.
Similar hearings on MDMA, a.k.a. ecstasy, concluded that it also has
important medical uses. In both cases, the DEA overruled its
administrative law judge and kept the drugs in Schedule I, unavailable
for medical use.
