Marijuana

Prohibition Didn't Stop Marijuana Use. It Stopped Marijuana Research.

Rescheduling marijuana will make it easier to study a drug that tens of millions of Americans already use. 

Adam Omary and Jeffrey A. Singer | 6.25.2026 6:30 AM

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On June 29, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will convene a hearing to consider whether marijuana should finally be removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the federal government's most restrictive drug classification, reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. Heroin and LSD are in the same category. This hearing will determine whether restrictions will be eased on marijuana as a whole.  

It's a strikingly late debate to be having. 

The proceedings, which must conclude by July 15, follow an April order from the Department of Justice that moved marijuana products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state-licensed medical marijuana into Schedule III, a less restrictive category that allows medical research to proceed. Tens of millions of Americans use marijuana today, and cannabis is sold legally in some form across most of the country. Yet we know far less about the drug than its ubiquity would suggest. For more than half a century, a classification that was never meant to be permanent has blocked the research needed to understand what marijuana actually does to the people who use it.

The origin of this problem is political, not scientific. When Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, marijuana's placement in Schedule I was explicitly provisional, a placeholder pending review by a presidential commission. The Shafer Commission, chaired by a Republican governor and composed largely of President Richard Nixon's appointees, concluded in 1972 that marijuana did not meet the criteria for Schedule I and recommended decriminalizing personal possession. Nixon ignored the report and escalated the war on drugs. The provisional classification became permanent by default. Since 1965, an estimated 29 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, roughly 90 percent of them for possession alone.

The most damaging consequence of Schedule I, however, has not been to cannabis users, who have gained access through state legalization, but to the research enterprise. Schedule I substances face the most restrictive regulatory barriers under federal law, including heightened DEA registration requirements, limited sourcing options, and protocol approvals that materially delay or deter research. Even DEA-registered researchers have........

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