It’s been a week of hearings the decide whether or not marijuana should be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III in the Controlled Substances Act, and Marijuana Moment got a firsthand account of the hearing’s substance.
Cat Packer, a writer for Drug Policy Alliance, was allowed access for the first two days, and then denied entry on the third day. What she found was that the conversation revolved around a very small pool of voices.
The DEA was there to defend the choice to move marijuana into Schedule III, and then there were seven participants that the DEA chose to argue the other side. This is all that the administrative law judge has to discern whether or not the DEA made the right move. It concerns lots of marijuana advocates that the pool is so small, and in particular that the DEA may not be the most qualified to argue its side of the case.
One thing Cat Packer notes is that none of the conversation touched on the lasting harms of marijuana criminality for non-white communities. While this is a huge legalization reason for many advocates, it seems that it isn’t a factor in the governments decision whatsoever.
The government also made it clear in those first two days that their intention isn’t to legalization marijuana. Instead, it’s to regulate the drug. Their focus is on the medicinal market, not the recreational.
The hearings continue this week, and we’ll update this story if anything comes out of the now closed to the public court case.
Read the original story at Marijuana Moment.
