Utah Sen. Mitt Romney has issues about reclassifying marijuana

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WASHINGTON — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and different Republican senators are elevating issues a couple of suggestion from the Biden administration to reschedule marijuana from a drug seen as having no accepted medical use and a excessive potential for abuse to 1 thought of at low danger for dependence.

In a letter to federal Drug Enforcement Administrator Anne Milgram, Romney and fellow GOP members of the Senate International Relations Committee, Sens. Jim Risch of Idaho, and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, questioned whether or not shifting marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III managed substance would violate a global treaty.

“Any effort to reschedule marijuana should be based mostly on confirmed information and scientific proof — not the favored coverage of a specific administration — and account for our treaty obligations,” the senators wrote, citing the DEA’s responsibility to make sure compliance with the Single Conference on Narcotic Medication, ratified by the Senate in 1967.

“In prior rescheduling proceedings, the DEA has decided that part 811(d) requires it to categorise marijuana as a schedule I or II drug with the intention to adjust to our treaty obligations beneath the Single Conference,” the senators’ letter continued, referring to a piece of the treaty.

“It’s important that the DEA continues to comply with the legislation and abide by our treaty commitments,” the senators wrote, asking the DEA for a response by April 12 to an inventory of questions, such because the affect rescheduling might have on whether or not different nations proceed to implement treaty controls, “together with for lethal narcotics like fentanyl. “

Romney posted on X, previously often called Twitter, “To be blunt: rescheduling marijuana might trigger the U.S. to violate obligations beneath the Single Conference on Narcotic Medication. Efforts to reschedule marijuana should be based mostly on proof, not politics, and @DEAhq should guarantee we abide by our treaty commitments.”

Marijuana is managed beneath the treaty, the letter factors out, “which isn’t shocking given its recognized risks and well being dangers — and the United Nation’s Worldwide Narcotics Management Board has fiercely criticized efforts to legalize marijuana in different nations as a violation of the treaty.”

The letter states that final month a research related day by day marijuana use with a 25% enhance within the danger of coronary heart assault and a 42% enhance within the danger of stroke, and that different research have linked using marijuana “with critical psychotic penalties, together with schizophrenia and bipolar dysfunction.”

Regardless of marijuana being unlawful beneath federal legislation, most Individuals now stay in a state that has legalized the drug and most even have not less than one hashish dispensary of their county, in response to an evaluation by the Pew Analysis Middle launched in February.

As of February, the leisure use of marijuana is authorized in 24 states and the District of Columbia, in response to the Pew Analysis Middle, whereas one other 14 states, together with Utah, enable the drug for medical use solely. Colorado and Washington have been the primary states to legalize leisure marijuana use, in 2012.

Final August, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies really helpful to the DEA that marijuana be rescheduled from a Schedule I drug, like heroin or LSD, a Schedule III drug, a suggestion the company stated was based mostly on a federal Meals and Drug Administration overview requested by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Schedule III medicine embody ketamine, anabolic steroids and a few acetaminophen-codeine mixtures and are nonetheless managed substances beneath federal legislation. The Related Press reported that it’s unlikely state medical marijuana packages “would meet the manufacturing, record-keeping, prescribing and different necessities for Schedule III medicine.”

Rescheduling marijuana is seen as making it simpler for researchers to check the drug, in response to the Related Press, however would not have an effect on the banking points related to the authorized sale in some states of a federally managed substance.

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