Reclassifying marijuana

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: easing marijuana restrictions.

Last week, the Justice Department recommended the government change how it classifies marijuana, taking it from a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD, to a Schedule III drug, on par with steroids and testosterone.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: The Justice Department says the new category would take into account medical uses for marijuana and its supposed low addiction rates, though it would not decriminalize it.

BROWN: The Biden administration is pitching it as a low-risk change, but addiction counselors and former users question the move.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Muncy has the story.

MARY MUNCY: Andrew Tucker is a high school senior who’s about to graduate from a rehab center in Oklahoma. He came in for an addiction to marijuana that started his freshman year.

ANDREW TUCKER: I was always scared of all the other stuff. But weed, I don't know, I saw everyone else doing it so I did it.

In 2018, Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana, and Tucker says that made it much more accessible

TUCKER: In my town, there's probably at least 30 dispensaries and I'd say at least 10 of them would sell to you without an ID. And, you know, you just could walk in there and put it on the counter. And if you had the money, they just hand it over, and no questions asked.

A combination of friends, advertising, music, and social media helped make using weed feel normal to Tucker.

TUCKER: You turn a corner, everywhere there's a dispensary, and it's just it's advertised as medicine almost.

Right now, 24 states have decriminalized recreational use of marijuana and another 13 have legalized it only for medical uses.

Last fall, the Department of Health and Human Services advised the Biden administration to reevaluate how marijuana is classified. Then last week, the Justice Department said it was circulating a proposal to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug. Those are drugs “with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”

The change is likely still months away from being approved since there will be a public comment period along with more proposals and reviews.

JEFFREY SINGER: There's no guarantee that they'll give it Schedule III, but it's likely they'll do that.

Jeffrey Singer is a general surgeon and health policy expert with the CATO Institute. He supports legalizing most drugs, including marijuana.

He says changing how marijuana is scheduled won’t really change anything for someone who wants to use cannabis.

SINGER: Until the FDA approves it as a as a drug that can be marketed, it's still federally illegal to sell cannabis, even for medicinal purposes.

Singer says rescheduling marijuana would make it easier to do clinical research and allow retailers to take certain tax exemptions. But Singer thinks the government should go one step further.

SINGER: Cannabis should be descheduled. It's actually, compared to some other drugs that are not scheduled and readily available for recreational use, it's much safer.

He argues tobacco has similar health concerns with no medical uses, while detoxing from alcohol is much more dangerous.

But others disagree…

DAVIDSON: It has a higher potential for abuse and addiction than other Schedule I drugs.

Jordan Davidson is a policy researcher with Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

He argues that marijuana has gotten more addictive over the past 20 years thanks to cultivation resulting in more potent plants, and so should keep its Schedule I classification… That’s a drug “with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

DAVIDSON: Marijuana exacerbates a lot of mental illnesses. One of the causations of marijuana it's actually been established a causation marijuana use is psychosis.

A study published in JAMA Psychiatry says about 30 percent of people who try marijuana get addicted, putting it on par with heroin. But other studies suggest the number of people who get addicted to marijuana is more like 10 percent, putting it below nicotine and alcohol.

And what about the medical factor?

DAVIDSON: You think of marijuana as a plant. Right? Marijuana is a plant and that plant has hundreds and hundreds of compounds in it.

The FDA has approved cannabis-derived and synthetic cannabis-related drugs for medical use. But they are only available via prescription, and the FDA makes a clear distinction between cannabis and drugs derived from cannabis.

In other words, the FDA has not said smoking a joint is good for your health.

DAVIDSON: People are unsure about what it means. But what people are certain of is that Schedule III is less strict than Schedule I. Schedule III in people's minds means less dangerous.

So, is the answer education on the harms of marijuana?

Timothy Allen is certified in addiction medicine and pediatric and adult psychiatry.

He says people who use drugs aren’t thinking about the risks. They’re thinking of the benefits.

ALLEN: If I can give them something better, that allows them to deal with their anxiety, allows them to deal with, you know, what's going on in their life, allows them to deal with the stress of life. Then I can actually help them get better.

Proponents say marijuana can help with anxiety and depression, but back in Oklahoma, Andrew Tucker had a different experience. He started using weed because his friends were, but he kept using it to cope with anger issues, and they didn’t get better.

TUCKER: I got to the point where like, if I wasn't high, I was angry, like, any little thing would just tick me off.

But after the high wore off, he was still the same angry person. It took encountering Christ in rehab to figure out there was a better way to deal with anger, stress, and anxiety. And he thinks as long as he keeps looking at ‘something better,’ he’ll stay in recovery.

TUCKER: I went from probably not even going to graduate high school if I kept on doing what I was doing. But then again, like I say, I gotta look at how far I've come, like you know, I have a scholarship to college now and all that stuff, but I would have never had that if I kept smoking weed.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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