850
Kamala Harris Calls For Marijuana To Be Rescheduled 'As Quickly As Possible'
(www.huffpost.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
850 points (100.0% liked)
politics
19088 readers
3152 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Just so everyone knows, the DEA is actively reviewing a report from the Department of Health and Human services where they recommended to reschedule weed to a schedule 3. Biden had directed HHS to research to see if it should be rescheduled, so while biden hasn't unilaterally legalized weed (something that would quickly be challenged in court since presidents don't usually have unilateral power for most things), he has definitely been pushing it not be schedule 1. Which, while not legalization, would be a huge step for not just the industry but for all the medical patients out there who have had their doctors refuse to treat them because they use weed for pain.
So instead of descheduling it, he's looking into maybe one day thinking about starting the process of still keeping it illegal, but not as illegal.
Biden cannot de-schedule it. At most, he could issue an executive order telling the DEA to stop pursuing marijuana charges. Even if he did, the next president could just undo that. Biden is doing what he can which is calling for the AG to reschedule the drug.
There are only two ways weed can be de/rescheduled. First, is for congress to pass legislation doing so which then would need to be signed by the president. Congress is not going to do that. It's been attempted multiple times and has never come anywhere near passing. They pretty much all died in committee.
The second way is the way mandated by by the Controlled Substances Act. That laws states that, first, someone must file a petition with the attorney general, or the AG could initiate the process themselves. The AG then sends the request to HHS Secretary to start a scientific and medical evaluation of the request. HHS and FDA then conduct an assessment and sends a recommendation to the AG. Meanwhile, the AG/DEA conduct their own review of the request. Assuming everyone agrees, the AG then initiates the standard rule making process following the Administrative Procedures Act and the White House, after it's own review and the change can be made.
This article has a lovely, if disheartening flowchart of the process. It is a convoluted bureaucracy, but there is hope since the process was started in 2022 when President Biden instructed HHS to conduct a review into rescheduling marijuana.
HHS has since completed their review and sent a formal recommendation to the Attorney General on August 29 of 2023 recommending that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III. The ball is currently in the DEA's court. They have to conduct their own review and rumor has it that there are those within the DEA who disagree with Biden's push to reschedule weed. Still, with at least half the states allowing some form of legal access to marijuana, and the FDA having approved at least one drug derived from marijuana, they will be hard pressed to find some compelling reason to go against the HHS recommendation.
Of course, I think it's only too clear that the DEA is likely to strongly oppose this change and there are rumors that this is the case. Now it's just a matter of the DEA dragging it's feet before making an official announcement.
Odd. Chuck Schumer seems to think he can.
Then if he doesn't hate the minority communities that the racist drug war was designed to disrupt, he should have done this on day 1.
We should never do anything because Republicans might undo it.
That process sounds like complete bullshit from top to bottom when compared with the process needed to sell weapons for the genocide all centrists love.
Take a civics class.
Stop accepting excuses because you like the lack of results.
Why would I like him slow walking descheduling? You don't even make sense, you're just saying things to score imaginary points in your head.
Nope, the process to reschedule has been started, it'd be changed to schedule 3, which, unless you think tylenol with codeine is illegal, it wouldn't be illegal anymore.
Which is just another way of saying "we're looking into it."
I mean technically yeah, but that's just updating the citizens that the process is actively rolling. I'd rather be updated that things are happening as opposed to radio silence and thinking the administration is ignoring the issue.
They're pretending that something is happening when it won't. Some stupid bureaucratic hurdle will come up that they could circumvent if they wanted, but they'll gleefully announce that their hands are tied.
And people like you will buy it immediately. I'm sick of the endless lies and bullshit. I'm sick of being ordered to be happy because we're totally working on something until we get in our own way and stop it again.
That's literally the first step that needs to happen to reschedule it.
And the only step that's gonna happen.
Care to wager on that?
I never thought it'd be legal in my deep red midwestern state but I can go to the weed shop and buy it OTC now, they're packed every time I go. Not sure why you think a sitting president (who's shown signs he wants to listen the fringes of his party) wouldn't push for rescheduling, it's an easy win frankly. I'm pretty cynical and even I'm not that cynical.
I mean, you'll count his next "we're looking into it" as full recreational legalization nationwide, so no.
No. No it's not.
This time for sure.
A very important part of this is it allows for federal studies into the benefits of marijuana which is not allowed under schedule 1 status.