Page 1 - GS250102

January 2025 • Issue 25:01:02

Access to cannabis banking

going nowhere fast

abuse. Schedule III drugs are considered to have moderate
to low potential for abuse or dependency, and include, for
example, anabolic steroids and testosterone.
It's worth noting that most Americans favor legalizing mar-
ijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes. Only about
one in 10 U.S. adults believe marijuana should not be le-
gal at all, according to a 2024 report from the Pew Research
Center.

That report revealed that 57 percent of adult Americans be-
lieve cannabis should be legal for medical and recreational
purposes; nearly a third (32 percent) think it should be legal
for medical uses only.

DEA slow-walking reclassification
Although the DEA is pursuing reclassification through its
rulemaking process, it's unclear how the new presidential
By Patti Murphy administration will view its work.

he elation in some sectors of the economy and President Trump, in a post to his Truth Social platform last
members of the public expressed following for- year, indicated he would vote in favor of a Florida ballot
mer President Joe Biden's October 2022 call initiative that would allow for adult recreational uses of
T for a review of federal marijuana law, and the marijuana. (That initiative, which called for a state consti-
Department of Justice's subsequent move, May 2024, to tutional amendment, failed.) But he has given no clear in-
reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug than, say, dication that he would approve changes in the way federal
heroine has been short lived. law classifies cannabis.

An administrative judge with the Drug Enforcement Ad- The DEA's action followed a recommendation from the U.S.
ministration, the DOJ agency that enforces controlled sub- Department of Health and Human Services, issued in Au-
stances laws and regulations at the national level, abruptly gust 2023, to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III drug. The
cancelled hearings on the matter that had been scheduled
to begin on Jan. 21, 2025. The cancellation was blamed on a
confluence of factors including allegations the DEA didn't Contributed articles inside by:
want to see the change, and that it had improperly con-
ferred with groups opposed to the rule change. Allen Kopelman .....................................................................................16
Scott Buchanan .....................................................................................18
The hearing was just one in a series of steps that must be
taken before cannabis can be reclassified as a Schedule I Jaki Kackert .............................................................................................24
drug instead of a Schedule III drug. Schedules refer to how Jim Petit ...................................................................................................26
drugs are classified under the federal Controlled Substanc-
es Act (CSA). Elie Y. Katz ...............................................................................................28

Schedule I drugs include heroine, peyote and LSD – and Will Tumulty ...........................................................................................29
are deemed to have no medical use and a high potential for Scott Dawson .........................................................................................30

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