The US Drug Enforcement Administration plans to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a historic shift in US drug policy.
At a federal level, marijuana is classified as a “Schedule I” drug, a category it shares with heroin, ecstasy and LSD.
Instead, it would be included among “Schedule III” drugs, which are considered less likely to be abused.
The move would be the most significant US drug policy change in over 50 years.
The Department of Justice sent its proposal to the White House Office on Management and Budget (OMB) on Tuesday, the department confirmed in a statement.
Once the proposal is published in the US federal register, a public comment period will begin, after which it will be reviewed by an administrative judge before the change is formalised and published.
While marijuana, more widely known as cannabis, remains illegal at the federal level, 38 individual states have legalised it for medical purposes, and 24 have legalised it for recreational use.
The announcement sent the share prices of US cannabis industry companies soaring by between 15% and 67%. Canadian firms also enjoyed large rises.
What are Schedule I and Schedule III drugs?
Since 1971, marijuana has been a Schedule I drug, meaning that – in the federal government’s view – it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
Schedule III substances, on the other hand, are defined by the DEA as drugs “with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological abuse”.
Other drugs in this category include Tylenol with codeine, steroids, testosterone and ketamine.
Drugs in the Schedule III category are still controlled, and their unauthorised trafficking could still lead to federal criminal prosecution, although the penalties are less severe.
What would reclassification mean?
In practice, the move could also undercut the vast black market for the drug that continues to exist even in parts of the country where marijuana’s legal sale are regulated and subject to tax.
“When you legalise a compound, far more people would go to the legal market, just because it’s simple and people don’t have access to the black market. The illicit market would certainly dwindle,” Dr Carl Hart, a psychologist and neuroscientist from Columbia University who specialises in drug use and addiction told the BBC.
This shift, in turn, could ultimately help further drive down the already declining number of marijuana arrests made in the US each year.
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