Why marijuana prohibitionists prefer Schedule 2 in reclassification process

(This is a contributed guest column.To be considered as an MJBizDaily guest columnist, please submit your request here.) Andrew Graham (Courtesy photo)What if the promise of marijuana rescheduling is really a Faustian bargain that looks like it’s smiling? Since the Biden presidential administration put rescheduling into motion by acknowledging the plant’s currently accepted medical use, advocates and stakeholders have been monitoring the situation largely under the assumption that there are two plausible outcomes: The industry will prevail, and the plant will be moved to Schedule 3.

Marijuana prohibitionists will win, and the plant will remain in Schedule 1. ADVERTISEMENT Under the previous administration, that way of thinking made a lot of sense. Under the Trump administration, it does not.

Right now, the publicly available facts and evidence point toward neither Schedule 3 nor Schedule 1; rather, they veer toward Schedule 2.Here’s why: Nobody thinks President Trump is going to suddenly decide to put his political capital to work on marijuana reform amid everything else going on.

That makes the track record of the other officials involved just as relevant now as it was during the Biden administration.For example, unless something unexpected happens during Terrance Cole’s confirmation process to be the new DEA administrator, the agency’s full-time leader will be anti-cannabis as well.

Cole has repeatedly made his stance on cannabis clear: He favors continued prohibition and recriminalization.New legislation plays into prohibitionists’ hands That sentiment is echoed in this week’s news that Sen.

Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has been working behind the scenes to recriminalize hemp-derived THC by putting a ban on it in must-pass agriculture legislation.The measure reportedly involves language written by Rep.

Andy Harris, R-Maryland, a prohibitionist lawmaker in the House.Even if the language...