Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced it will propose a rule that would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. In response, Akua Amaning, director for Criminal Justice Reform at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
The DEA’s proposed rescheduling of marijuana is significant but doesn’t go far enough, as full descheduling is urgently needed. Rescheduling to a Schedule III drug will do little to mitigate the harms of marijuana criminalization. For the past 20 years, the United States has averaged more than 600,000 marijuana arrests each year, with Black individuals being nearly four times more likely than their white counterparts to be arrested—even though both use marijuana at similar rates.
Congress should pass descheduling legislation, such as the Senate-led Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) and the House-led Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. Not only do these bills decriminalize marijuana through descheduling; they also include the administration’s campaign pledge on marijuana policy reform—automatic expungements—and establish programming for reinvestment in communities disproportionately targeted by marijuana criminalization.
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For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Jasmine Razeghi at [email protected].