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