SAM EVP Luke Niforatos published a crucial op-ed in the Daily Caller, pointing out the fact that moving marijuana from Schedule I into Schedule III is a Joe Biden policy.
One that (based on the best science we have) should never have seen the light of day.
It makes zero sense for the current president to adopt it:
Under President Biden, the Health and Human Services Department in 2023 issued a recommendation that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III. Sadly, the Biden HHS had to put politics before science in order to justify this recommendation, which departed from years of precedent.
For example, consider its claim that marijuana already has a currently accepted medical use treatment. HHS argued in part that because certain states allow doctors to recommend this dangerous drug, this constitutes accepted medical use. Yet we don’t decide medicine approvals or drug safety by votes and the efforts of political action committees. The laws allowing marijuana recommendations are not based on science, but on politics.
But wait, it gets worse!
Look at Pennsylvania, where in 2022, 17 doctors issued more than 132,000 medical marijuana certifications, almost one-third of the state’s total that year.
Does that seem medically or scientifically sound?
The Biden administration also asserted that credible evidence supports such medical use in the case of marijuana.
Wrong again.
Consider the most frequent medical condition “treated” with marijuana, chronic pain: Evidence suggests the drug not only fails to mitigate pain, but results in lower pain thresholds. A major new systematic review from the British Medical Journal in June found a double risk of cardiovascular death associated with the drug.
Luke sums it all up in words every American should hear:
Giving an effective green light to a drug linked to depression and suicidality, psychosis, and heart disease is the opposite of that.
All the more so since moving weed to Schedule III would allow marijuana businesses to take normal deductions on their taxes, including for advertising expenses.
That would supercharge their revenues and reach and do yet more harm.
This isn’t a partisan issue (or shouldn’t be). Marijuana presents serious concerns for public health.
Biden’s HHS was wrong to recommend rescheduling; the Trump administration would be making a costly mistake if it follows that path.