The Biden Administration is pushing a decision that will lead to marijuana to be considered a drug that carries “low danger” in the United States, a policy that would reverse the country’s approach to cannabis for more than 50 years.
Specifically, it is expected that the US anti-drug office, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), downgrade to marijuanawhich is currently classified within the so-called tier 1 list (where LSD, peyote, hallucinogenic mushrooms, ecstasy, bath salts and heroin are found) to the tier 3 list (composed of drugs that even are sold in a controlled manner in pharmacies, such as steroids, testosterone and drugs with codeine).
The decision is based on the idea that cannabis is less dangerous and less addictive than it has been considered until now, contravening to some extent the very statements that have emerged from organizations such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which consider the substance as an initiation portal against harder drugs.
Biden’s pro-cannabis policy
This measure is not at all surprising, since already in 2022 Biden himself had requested his Secretary of Health and Human Services and the country’s attorney general to They will carry out a review process of federal laws that regulate the matter, so that it could eventually be “moved” to category cannabis.
Successively, the White House tenant has promoted pardons for people who have been convicted of marijuana possession in different parts of the United States. Last December, for example, he ordered the release of a group of individuals who had committed this crime in the District of Columbia.
«Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed unnecessary barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities (…) Too many lives have been disrupted because of our failed approach to marijuana. “It is time for us to correct these mistakes,” Biden said on that occasion.
The advance would have, in addition to the approval of the DEA, the approval of agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the latter highlighting that the drug has a low potential for abuse , which is useful for certain medical treatments and that, if an individual eventually abuses it, the possibilities of dependence over time are limited.
“Marijuana withdrawal syndrome appears to be relatively mild compared to alcohol-associated withdrawal syndrome, which can include more severe symptoms such as agitation, paranoia, seizures, and even death,” the FDA notes in a report.
It has become an industry
It is estimated that the marijuana industry in the United States currently has a value close to 31 million euros, in a context in which twenty-four states, two territories and the city of Washington have legalized the “recreational” use of the drug, while another 38 states in the Union have admitted its “medicinal” use.
In this new move by the Biden Administration, whose Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would be the one that would end up giving the green light to the measure, also there seems to be some political calculation. There are many analysts in the United States who believe that the current president – who is at a disadvantage in almost all the polls heading into November – would be seeking to ingratiate himself with the young electorate through this action with a view to seeking re-election.