The Department of Justice announced today that state-licensed medical marijuana products and Food and Drug Administration-approved products are now treated as Schedule III substances under the Controlled Substances Act, while most other marijuana remains Schedule I pending further action by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
This rescheduling is a partial shift, not the end of federal prohibition — it attempts to draw a clear line between medical and recreational markets, said Katharine Neill Harris, the Alfred C. Glassell III Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
“There is some uncertainty about what comes next,” Harris said. “For businesses that operate in both medical and recreational markets, there is now a gray zone in which some of their activity is moving into Schedule III and some of it is not. This matters for tax purposes, as activities involving Schedule III substances can take advantage of standard business tax breaks, while those involving Schedule I substances cannot.”
For research, the change should lower barriers tied to Schedule I restrictions, but it does not automatically open the door to using dispensary products in clinical trials, Harris said. FDA standards for drug development still apply, and agency actions will still determine how quickly the pace of medical research accelerates.
“Regardless of these uncertainties, this announcement is still a historic shift in U.S. drug policy that recognizes the medical applications of marijuana and moves away from a strictly prohibitionist stance,” Harris said.
To schedule an interview with Harris, contact Avery Franklin, media relations specialist at Rice, at ar119@rice.edu.
Related Baker Institute drug policy commentary from Harris: