The recommendation is the result of a yearlong review initiated by the president.

The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is recommending that the Drug Enforcement Agency significantly loosen federal restrictions on marijuana but stopped short of advising that it should be entirely removed from the Controlled Substances Act.

The health agency wants the drug moved from Schedule I to Schedule III under the CSA, potentially the biggest change in federal drug policy in decades.

HHS Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine wrote in a Tuesday letter to the DEA, first reported by Bloomberg News, that the recommendation was based on a review conducted by the Food and Drug Administration.

  • BertramDitore@lemmy.worldEnglish
    391·
    1 year ago

    I’ll believe it when I see it. The DEA ultimately gets to make the call. A change like this would probably mean they’d lose some funding, so I bet they’ll be against it. They’d also have to come up with new and creative ways to “legally” harass and incarcerate black people, though I imagine that might be a tempting prospect for them…

    • AccmRazr@lemm.eeEnglish
      181·
      1 year ago

      It wouldn’t stop any arrests, it basically only opens up the stock market for the companies.

      • thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world
        11·
        1 year ago

        Not just the stock market but banking* in general. Ever paid attention to the types of crimes associated with dispensaries?

        Edit: changed banning to banking. Mobile is lovely.

        • jasondj@ttrpg.network
          7·
          1 year ago

          In my state (and probably all states), the rec dispensaries are all cash-only businesses. Apparently because they cannot do business with any banks under federal law.

          They have ATMs and they can usually run a debit card as an ATM transaction (which charges an ATM fee, and they have to round up to $5 and give you back the difference cash).

          Literally the only place I use my debit card (bank reimburses the fees).

          But this means a lot of risk…they have to deal with transport/deposits, and having a large amount of cash in hand in the shop. Granted, at least in my state, every store has a mantrap where your ID gets scanned before you can go to into the shop, but that’s still pretty scary. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the mantrap is really only necessary to protect the workers and the cash on-hand.

          And there’s also the issue of payroll, since as an otherwise above-board business, they can’t be paying their employees in cash. But they also can’t work with the banks. This adds a lot of complexity and usually results in workers all being contractors for some other entity entirely, which really sounds a bit shady and probably pretty easy to screw up come tax time.

          They really need to be allowed to work with the banks.

          • thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            Yep. Allowing them to use banks could mostly eliminate cash purchases, it at the very least, they could be using secure cash drops like convenience stores and having transfer agencies handle moving the cash. It would further shine a light on the businesses and possibly help move cartels out of the growth-to-user pipeline.

          • CheezyWeezle@lemmy.world
            2·
            1 year ago

            What makes you say that dispensaries can’t pay their employees in cash? That’s a total legal and fine thing to do… why wouldn’t it be? A business cant pay their employees in money? I know plenty of people who are paid in cash, including a few dispensary workers…

          • Kage520@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            If it became a schedule 3 drug, would it require the doctor to specifically give amounts in a prescription and a pharmacist to dispense it?