Rescheduling vs. Descheduling

n
response to the U.S. Supreme Court declaring the Marijuana Tax Act
unconstitutional, congress and the Nixon Administration in 1970 created the
Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Five categories of drugs were created ranging
from the most dangerous Schedule 1 with no accepted medical use and high
potential for abuse to minimal danger Schedule 5 with accepted medical use and
little potential for abuse.

At
the behest of the Nixon Administration, cannabis was placed into Schedule 1
along with heroin, LSD and MDMA (Ecstasy). The placement of cannabis into Schedule
1 had nothing to do with science or health and everything to do with President
Nixon’s fear and hatred of the prevailing 60s counterculture. Since cannabis
was a major part of the counterculture he despised but couldn’t stop, with the
CSA he could put a lot of them in jail by having cannabis classified as a Schedule
1 drug.

The
ink had barely dried on the CSA when the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws (NORML) filed a petition in 1972 to have cannabis removed
from Schedule 1. Their petition failed as has similar petitions filed by other
organizations in 2001, 2002 and 2013.

In
2008, the American College of Physicians, the nation’s second largest physician
association, became the first major medical organization to call for cannabis’s
reclassification to Schedule II. In 2014, they were joined by American Academy
of Neurology citing the need to “expedite future research on marijuana-based products.”

With
children always being portrayed by drug war proponents as the innocent victims
of any loosening of cannabis prohibition laws, it is most telling that the
American Academy of Pediatricians has joined the chorus to reschedule cannabis.
Echoing a similar call on the need to accelerate research, rescheduling is now
seen by many as a viable middle-of-the-road policy for ending cannabis
prohibition.

Although
anything that makes cannabis more available is a step in the right direction, rescheduling
proponents are not our best friends. Although rescheduling would ease
restrictions on cannabis research and allow cannabis businesses to deduct
business expenses on their tax returns, cannabis would still remain illegal
under federal law.

People
could still be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned. Children could still be
taken away from their parents. Criminals would still control the distribution
system and crime and violence would continue unabated.

Since
law enforcement has always reflexively opposed any loosening of cannabis
prohibition laws, most police organizations still oppose the rescheduling of cannabis.
As cannabis legalization seems to be winning the day, their position may be
softening.

If
cannabis is legalized they will lose billions of taxpayer dollars overnight,
whereas if they accede to reclassifying to Schedule II, cannabis would still be
illegal without a very restrictive doctor’s prescription, and they would still
get billions of dollars annually to arrest half-a-million Americans who are
going to continue using , CSA Drug Schedule be damned.

Even
though the majority of the public support legalizing cannabis, the majority of
them do not use cannabis and may come to accept rescheduling as a sensible compromise
between the those who want to see prohibition ended and those who do not. This
is a trap we must avoid.

Cannabis
should have the same listing on the CSA Schedule of Drugs as caffeine—which is
no listing. Considering that caffeine can cause myriad problems including agitation,
myocardial irritability, cardiac arrhythmia, seizures, renal failure, pulmonary
edema, hyperglycemia, metabolic acidosis and death, the absence of caffeine
from the CSA list of controlled substances and the inclusion of cannabis is
more a matter of politics than science.

Unlike
caffeine, having cannabis widely, easily and affordably available is matter of
extreme importance for the health of the community. Rescheduling does not allow
that to happen. No matter whether cannabis is legalized, decriminalized or
anything in between, cannabis must be removed from the CSA.