Department of Human Services recommends marijuana be reclassified

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has delivered a recommendation to the DEA on marijuana policy.

Transcript

00:00 >> The federal government first classified cannabis marijuana

00:02 as a schedule one drug back in 1970 with the controlled

00:06 substances act for years it sat alongside heroin in our country

00:10 as a schedule one drug under federal law will now the drug

00:13 enforcement administration, the DEA has a big decision to make

00:17 do they keep cannabis is a schedule one drug or do they

00:20 change it impacting marijuana laws from coast to coast.

00:24 >> The decision now in the hands of an agency that has

00:27 been here before in 2016 during the obama administration,

00:31 the DEA wrote this letter to 2 governors seeking to reclassify

00:35 the drug marijuana will remain a schedule one controlled

00:38 substance, the agency wrote at the time of course a lot has

00:41 changed in the last 7 years, 23 states have now legalized it

00:45 for recreational use Minnesota, the latest earlier this year.

00:49 >> It's certainly a big deal that a federal agency is

00:51 finally admitting that cannabis does not belong on schedule one

00:55 of the controlled substances act Morgan Fox is the political

00:58 director of the National Organization for the reform of

01:00 marijuana laws. He says the fact that last week the

01:03 Department of Health and Human Services recommended to the DEA

01:06 change is significant. The recommendation it become a

01:10 schedule 3 drug doesn't exactly do a lot for cannabis users.

01:14 >> It would not have any sizable impact on the criminal

01:17 justice aspects of prohibition.

01:19 >> Fox says the biggest impact would likely be on cannabis

01:22 business owners who may be eligible for more tax breaks

01:25 and perhaps some researchers but the schedule switch would

01:28 still make it illegal at the federal level Fox says there

01:31 remains big questions at the DEA will even go through with

01:35 the classification change after all the agency has rejected it

01:38 before and it's why he believes Congress needs to step in.

01:42 >> The DEA could very well take their time on this and

01:45 historically they have taken years is their frustration in

01:49 the cannabis community directed at the Biden administration for

01:51 how slow this is all taking.

01:54 >> We'd obviously like to see things moving a lot faster.

01:57 >> We did reach out to the DEA for perspective on how long

01:59 their review might take officials got back to us saying

02:02 that the process is beginning now and that they have nothing

02:05 further to share at the White House the Biden administration

02:08 not putting any pressure on the DEA publicly to act going to

02:12 be an independent process they're going to certainly use

02:15 the evidence Joe St. George scripts news Washington.