At President Joe Biden’s urging, the Department of Justice has officially started the process to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug than most prescription painkillers and many addictive stimulants, ending decades of policy that treated it as having no acceptable medical use.
The department published a draft regulation in the Federal Register that would, if made final, place marijuana in the category known as Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule III drugs are those that are known to have “a potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances” in Schedule I – the category reserved for drugs with “no accepted medical use” and “a high potential for abuse” – and Schedule II, the category that includes highly addictive substances such as fentanyl and oxycodone.
