Critics point out that as a Schedule III drug, marijuana would remain regulated by the DEA. That means the roughly 15,000 cannabis dispensaries in the U.S. would have to register with the DEA like regular pharmacies and fulfill strict reporting requirements, something that they are loath to do and that the DEA is ill equipped to handle.
Aren’t these dispensaries currently registered with the DEA? Why would lowering it on the schedule change that?
They are registered to the various states programs, but I can’t imagine there is a way to register with the DEA to sell a Schedule 1 drug for recreational use.
I think currently they’re not. They’re registered to their state as they’re still technically illegal at the federal level. The DEA has taken kind of a don’t ask don’t tell approach to marijuana and is currently relying on a patchwork of state regulations to manage it because for a variety of (terrible) reasons they haven’t taken the sane step of reclassifying it. It honestly shouldn’t be a scheduled drug or at worst a schedule 4. Moving it from schedule 1 to 3 is better than nothing, but it’s still a chicken shit maneuver.
I’m pretty sure the DEA has a ton of funding directly tied to Marijuana enforcement, they can’t just deschedule it entirely without losing that funding immediately. Those funding requirements need to be reclassified for other uses.
As someone unfamiliar with the law my guess would be that the DEA doesn’t have mechanisms in place to register distributors of schedule 1 substances, since it doesn’t recognize them as having any legitimate use.
Aren’t these dispensaries currently registered with the DEA? Why would lowering it on the schedule change that?
Nah. As a schedule I, it’s in the same category as things like meth. Tito your corner drug dealer ain’t telling the feds where he’s selling, right?
Meth is schedule 2. Which highlights how absurd cannabis being schedule 1 for so long was.
My bad! I just assumed.
Schedule I is reserved for only the most vile drugs, like LSD!
And crack… But not powder cocaine.
I’m sure that has NOTHING to do with the types of people who tend to use one or the other.
They are registered to the various states programs, but I can’t imagine there is a way to register with the DEA to sell a Schedule 1 drug for recreational use.
I think currently they’re not. They’re registered to their state as they’re still technically illegal at the federal level. The DEA has taken kind of a don’t ask don’t tell approach to marijuana and is currently relying on a patchwork of state regulations to manage it because for a variety of (terrible) reasons they haven’t taken the sane step of reclassifying it. It honestly shouldn’t be a scheduled drug or at worst a schedule 4. Moving it from schedule 1 to 3 is better than nothing, but it’s still a chicken shit maneuver.
Devil’s advocate here…
I’m pretty sure the DEA has a ton of funding directly tied to Marijuana enforcement, they can’t just deschedule it entirely without losing that funding immediately. Those funding requirements need to be reclassified for other uses.
It also means regular pharmacies can sell it, and via normal banking channels.
As someone unfamiliar with the law my guess would be that the DEA doesn’t have mechanisms in place to register distributors of schedule 1 substances, since it doesn’t recognize them as having any legitimate use.