An expert tells us why the DEA was wrong to not change marijuana’s Schedule 1 status

The war on drugs has proven to be more like a war on civilians.

Between 2001 and 2010, 8.2 million people were arrested on marijuana-related charges, and nearly 90 percent of those arrests were for simple possession. The ACLU has posted a comprehensive review of the issue, which shows despite the United States accounting for just five percent of the world’s population, we also hold 25 percent of the world’s prison population. The review added people of color were nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession.

Thanks to the DEA’s ruling today, marijuana will still be considered a Schedule 1 drug, the same status as heroin and ecstasy.

According to the DEA:

“Schedule 1 drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule 1 drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.”

So I spoke to Evan Nison, a board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible Drug Policy to shed some light on what the DEA’s decision means.

He told me the DEA made their statement today as a “response to an official petition to reschedule by Governors Gregoire of Washington and Chaffee of Rhode Island. They simply rejected the petition.”

Ironically, Evan relayed to me that simultaneously: “The White House announced that they’ll make it easier for universities to research marijuana, which is a good thing for the scientific community.”

It is difficult to understand why the DEA would reject the petition so quickly, as Evan explained: “Half of the states have some form of legalization.”

In fact legalization has proven to be effective for preventing drugs reaching the hands of children in Colorado, a state that has fully legalized recreational usage of marijuana for adults over the age of 21. And medical marijuana has been used for decades, as Evan elaborated: “Cannabis has been shown to help a number of ailments, and many with PTSD have said cannabis is their best and most reliable medicine.”

Constituents of states, their elected representatives, and medical doctors agree marijuana is a potentially useful medicine. So why is it still Schedule 1? Evan claims while “the tides are certainty turning in favor of legalization, the DEA is tasked with opposing legalization efforts.”

And will the DEA’s decision hurt the legalization efforts across the country? “I don’t view this as a regressive step for legalization,” he explains. “I just view it as unfortunate that the DEA continues to live in the dark ages.”

Evan has a point. Not only has marijuana proven to be effective as a medicine for an enormous list of ailments, and a substitute for powerful and harmful pharmaceutical drugs, it is also an enormous source of potential revenue.

In Colorado, the tax revenue from marijuana sales hit nearly $1 billion dollars in 2016. Much of the money is being put back into school systems, large public infrastructure projects like interstate highways, recreation centers, addressing homelessness, public health and education programs. This seems like a prudent way to generate revenue at a time when the nation is suffering economically.

With so much evidence to support the claim that marijuana is not only a potentially beneficial medicine, but also a lucrative industry, why is the DEA so firmly opposed to rescheduling?

“Today isn’t worse than it was yesterday for cannabis advocates or the marijuana industry, but we now know the DEA is still ignoring science.”

He added: “History books won’t look kindly on the DEA for making these decisions, but I’m confident that cannabis will still be legalized throughout the country and world despite their efforts to prevent it.”

Considering the massive incarceration of non-violent offenders due to marijuana, and the bloated budget of the DEA, and the statistics that show the war or drugs disproportionately affects minority communities, perhaps Nison is correct about history. Not to mention there has never been a single documented overdose death attributed to use of marijuana.

Going forward Evan believes our “public and our elected officials are going to have to lead on this issue.” This has already happened at the state level in numerous places.

Today the Whitehouse said they will allow research to be done on a drug the DEA has simultaneously declared to be one of the most dangerous drugs available and has no accepted medical usage. So it would appear that the United States government disagrees with itself.