Tell Biden: Marijuana Must Be Decriminalized, Rescheduling Isn’t Enough

It’s official. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is proposing rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I drug, the most restrictive class, to a Schedule III drug, a less restrictive class. While changes to our failed federal marijuana laws are long overdue, we know that rescheduling is insufficient!

Rescheduling marijuana would continue marijuana criminalization at the federal level. And most penalties, including those for simple possession, would continue as long as marijuana remains anywhere on the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

To achieve true federal decriminalization, the Biden Admin must remove marijuana from the CSA by descheduling it. Descheduling marijuana is the only way to put an end to federal prohibition and the harms it’s causing our communities.

Public comments on the DEA’s rescheduling proposal will open soon which will give supporters like you a chance to weigh in directly. We’ll let you know when that happens so you can make your voice heard. But as we wait, it’s crucial for us to speak up right now. Tell Biden that rescheduling falls short and demand descheduling to decriminalize marijuana nationwide.

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Your Message

Subject

Dear President Biden,

Message Body

While I appreciate the Biden Administration’s efforts to reconsider marijuana’s inappropriate classification as a Schedule I controlled substance, I have deep concerns around the insufficiency of rescheduling. Instead of keeping marijuana illegal under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), it’s time to end this country’s failed policy of criminalization by completely removing marijuana from the CSA’s drug schedules.

Rescheduling will not end federal marijuana criminalization. Rescheduling will not end federal marijuana arrests, even for possession and use. Rescheduling will not release anyone in prison for marijuana. Rescheduling will not expunge previous marijuana arrests. Rescheduling will not end deportations stemming from marijuana activity. Rescheduling will not restore access to government benefits that people have lost due to marijuana activity. Rescheduling will not bring state marijuana programs into compliance with federal law. Rescheduling will not guarantee fair working conditions for individuals working in the marijuana industry. Rescheduling will not facilitate patients’ access to medical marijuana.

Overall, Schedule III is insufficient, even for the marijuana industry. For example, although placing marijuana in Schedule III would remove unfair and onerous tax penalties upon state-legal marijuana businesses, it won’t give them legal access to essential business services and is unlikely to result in significant wage increases for workers or lower prices for patients and consumers. More importantly, rescheduling marijuana would continue the criminalization of most marijuana activity occurring in the United States such as personal possession and use and participating in state-legal marijuana businesses.

The only way to end federal marijuana criminalization and its harms is to completely remove marijuana from the CSA, or “descheduling.” Descheduling must be accompanied by a new federal policy for marijuana that reduces criminal legal consequences for marijuana activity, restores rights and opportunities for individuals and communities targeted by marijuana criminalization, and creates a federal regulatory framework for marijuana rooted in equity.

Not only is the outcome of Schedule III insufficient, the process of evaluating marijuana’s status on the CSA is also flawed. The administrative review process conducted by the FDA and DEA is, by design, limited in scope and fails to consider the racist origins and impacts of marijuana prohibition which have produced overwhelming negative social, economic, and public health consequences. These generational outcomes are still felt by predominantly Black and Latino communities experiencing mass incarceration, inaccessible public housing, and denial of food assistance programs, among other detrimental consequences that will continue under marijuana rescheduling. Given the Biden Administration’s repeated acknowledgement of the racially discriminatory enforcement of marijuana laws and related harms, any process by the Biden Administration to develop a new federal policy for marijuana without these considerations is unjustifiable.

You have repeatedly promised to decriminalize marijuana. We call on your administration to follow through on this unfulfilled commitment by expediting the descheduling of marijuana and taking action now to end and repair the harms of federal marijuana criminalization.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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