Colorado, 11 other states ask feds to reclassify cannabis
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined a group of attorneys general from a dozen other states who sent a letter this week to the federal government asking that cannabis be reduced from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance.
The letter penned to U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Anne Milgram reflected an attempt by the 12 states to seek a greater degree of uniform state regulation for the drug nationwide. This would allow states to bring in revenue from a legal cannabis businesses and consumers' sales tax, the letter claimed. That revenue could then be applied to public health and safety measures such as education and further research into the drug's impacts.
Simultaneously, the AG's stated, the change in the legal status of cannabis would help eliminate the drug's unlawful and unmonitored consumption.
"A state-regulated cannabis industry better protects consumers than the illicit marijuana market or the unregulated intoxicating hemp-derived marketplace," the letter explains. "It is critical to acknowledge that use of cannabis, especially among youth, still incurs health and safety risks. Our regulatory regimes have sought to balance the mandate to create as safe a framework as possible with the reality of these risks. Juxtaposed against the dangers of the illicit market and unregulated hemp-derived cannabinoids, moreover, we believe that there is a public health and safety mandate to protect the state-regulated industry by rescheduling cannabis to schedule III."
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According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, the cannabis industry in Colorado has generated more than $15 billion in sales since regulated recreational sales began in 2014. Those sales peaked in 2021.
Meanwhile, the state has collected more than $2.6 billion in marijuana taxes over the same period.
"Colorado is committed to protecting the integrity of its first-in-the-nation regulated cannabis market," Colorado's Weiser stated in a press release. "We recognize that there are health and safety risks raised by the use of cannabis and we must continue to take them seriously and address them. We also are confident that a well-regulated market for cannabis products best protects consumers, and this action of rescheduling cannabis will better enable the market to function."
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Attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Rhode Island joined Colorado's Weiser in endorsing the letter.
"While we are not all aligned on the wisdom of fully legalizing cannabis," the letter added, "we do agree, however, that a state-regulated cannabis industry better protects consumers than the illicit marijuana market or the unregulated intoxicating hemp-derived marketplace."
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On its website, the DEA defines a Schedule I drug as those "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." Included in those class are heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote.
A Schedule III drug is defined as one with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.