In the Media
DEA Moves to Reclassify Marijuana
Read Time: 2 minsAssociate Daniel Shortt (Seattle) was interviewed on Seattle’s Fox 13 on April 30, 2024, about marijuana’s reclassification from Schedule I to Schedule III.
“A Schedule I drug is considered to have no currently accepted medical use. Other examples of Schedule I drugs include heroin, MDMA, and LSD. The Controlled Substance Act breaks down these drugs into different schedules and classifies Schedule I drugs as the most dangerous and Schedule II, III, IV, and V as less dangerous. Schedule II drugs include things like Fentanyl and cocaine. Schedule III substances are things like Ketamine and Tylenol with Codeine, and in the future, that’s where marijuana will also sit.”
“I think it will have impacts down the road, but not immediately. To be clear, this is the first step in the process to eventually reschedule marijuana. There will be rulemaking done by the [Drug Enforcement Agency] DEA. It will be published in the Federal Register and this process will be ongoing. What rescheduling doesn’t do, is it’s not going to legalize marijuana in sort of the way we might think about it. If you think about these substances, let’s say Tylenol with Codeine, how do you get Tylenol with Codeine? You go to a healthcare professional, it’s prescribed, and then you go to your local pharmacy or it’s provided to you at the hospital or a doctor’s office. Consumers in Washington understand that these … dispensary retail stores are selling one product: Cannabis. That product is grown and processed in the state of Washington in a tightly regulated system, but one that’s outside of the federal system of the Controlled Substances Act, which is much more tightly regulated. So, it won’t necessarily impact the consumers right away; I think it will have impacts over time.”
“Another important piece of this is one of the major issues in the cannabis industry is taxation. Because of another federal law, Internal Revenue Code Section 280E, marijuana businesses have not traditionally been able to take deductions that another business would take other than those for costs of goods sold. This rescheduling, if it does go through and marijuana is rescheduled to schedule III IRC 280E, will no longer apply, and the marijuana businesses will be able to take deductions.”