Marijuana rescheduling hearings are finally here, but rescheduling is not enough

Marijuana was placed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act when the bill was signed into law in 1970. The Controlled Substances Act classifies drugs according to their alleged potential for abuse, whether it has a currently accepted medical use, and whether abuse may lead to drug dependence. There are five Schedules, with Schedule I substances facing the harshest criminal penalties and the strictest research restrictions. The penalties can be tied to the schedule that the substance is in, or specifically to a substance, like marijuana.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has finally started an administrative hearing over its proposed rule to place marijuana in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The criminal penalties and mandatory minimums, however, will not change if the DEA adopts the rule since they are tied specifically to marijuana.

It has been 54 years since the Shafer Commission report, authorized when the Controlled Substances Act was signed into law, recommended that marijuana be removed from Schedule I. The Nixon administration handpicked the committee and subsequently ignored its findings and recommendations. It is my firm belief that marijuana never belonged on Schedule I. Its inclusion and associated criminal penalties resulted in harsh and disproportionate prison sentences, particularly for communities of color, and substantially hampered research.

Richard Nixon’s former White House Counsel, John Ehrlichman, reportedly said of Nixon’s drug policy, “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we........

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