The Republican congressman is concerned that large pharmaceutical companies could overtake the cannabis market if the federal agency does not “go further” than moving marijuana down to a lower schedule, as the top health agency recommended.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL, filled in as a Newsmax host on Monday and hosted a segment featuring attorney John Morgan. Morgan spent millions of dollars to get a medical cannabis initiative approved in Florida. The two talked about recent reports that U.S. Health and Human Services is advising Drug Enforcement Administration to move marijuana to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.
Morgan criticised the current status quo, which lists marijuana on the same schedule with drugs like heroin. He accused the alcohol and pharmaceutical industry of blocking research into cannabis in order to prevent the possibility of replacing the dangerous drugs they sell with marijuana.
Gaetz, who pressed DEA Administrator on the status of the scheduling review in the past month, said: “Well, I completely concur with your assessment that marijuana reforms are often blocked by Big Pharma, because they want to have the opportunity control it.” “My concern is if we do not go further than moving marijuana to Schedule III it could allow Big Pharma to have control over it.”
The congressman suggested that Biden’s administration was prompted to recommend rescheduling due to research that showed that legalization leads to a reduction in opioid-related hospitalizations, and a lower rate of child foster cases due to substance abuse. Morgan was then asked if the HHS Schedule III recommendations were “sufficient.”
Morgan, who supports marijuana reform in Congress , said it was “a step forward” despite some concerns that the pharmaceutical industry could gain power if marijuana were rescheduled. He stated that “it has to happen”.
It’s not a new idea that reclassifying marijuana could unintentionally disrupt state cannabis programs. Some have argued for years that a modest rescheduling could encourage the Food and Drug Administration to adopt a more hands-on approach to cannabis regulation and empower the DEA to crackdown on state marijuana markets. The plan has not been announced by either agency, but predictions of the possible enforcement implications are all over the place, since this is uncharted policy territory.
A former FDA official, who headed the Marijuana Working Group at the agency and had predicted that HHS’s recommendation would be to schedule marijuana as Schedule III, recently stated that he does not believe that reclassification will cause FDA’s approach towards marijuana to change.
Howard Sklamberg acknowledged that industry stakeholders and activists would prefer to see cannabis completely deschedule, but he pointed out that both the FDA and Justice Department had taken a hands off approach towards the legalization movement, while cannabis was still considered a Schedule I substance. He argued that it “defies logic”, to believe the agencies will suddenly enforce criminalization when cannabis is moved to a more restrictive category.
The scheduling decision is not final at this time. In a statement last month, DEA told Marijuana Moment that it would “now initiate its review”, taking FDA’s findings into consideration. However, it is the one who makes the final decision and does not have to implement a Schedule III reclassification.
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When asked Friday about the rescheduling recommendations, the White House Press Secretary said that Joe Biden was “very clear” in his support of the legalization marijuana for medical use.
Politically, reclassifying marijuana from Schedule I into Schedule III will allow the president say that he has helped achieve a major reform. He can also facilitate an administrative review which may lead to a rescheduling, more than 50 year after cannabis was classified in the most restrictive category when the federal government began its war on drugs. It would, however, not be a fulfillment of the president’s campaign promise to decriminalize cannabis.
In a letter to colleagues last week, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (DNY) included a marijuana banking bill as one of his legislative priorities for this year.
USDA Releases new Hemp Handbook as Agency Works to Rebuild a Post-Prohibition seed bank
Photo by Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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