On January 12, 2024, Colorado State Attorney General Phil Weiser, in addition to a steadily growing list of attorney generals from a dozen other states, sent a letter to the federal government requesting that cannabis be reduced from a Schedule I narcotic to a Schedule III controlled substance. The letter, which was directly addressed to U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram, was quick to highlight a greater need for regulatory uniformity in regard to the highly profitable drug nationwide. Additionally, the letter went on to express that with a greater sense of legal oversight, states would finally be allowed to introduce legal cannabis businesses and begin accumulating revenue from consumers' sales tax.
The revenue in question could go on to be utilized for any number of public sector needs, from improved health and safety measures and educational funding to further research into the drug's societal, financial and biological impact. On the flip side, the group also adamantly stated that this legislative change in cannabis’ legal status would effectively 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. 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,” the letter explains, as originally reported by the New York Times.
According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, since legalization was enacted in 2014, the cannabis industry has generated roughly $15 billion in regulated recreational sales. Those sales, which would peak in 2021, brought in more than $2.6 billion in consumer sales tax over the same period of time.
"Colorado is committed to protecting the integrity of its first-in-the-nation regulated cannabis market. 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,” stated Weiser in a recent press release posted on the Colorado Attorney General’s website.
As of right now, attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Rhode Island have all openly endorsed Weiser’s efforts toward a reduction in cannabis’ current substance category. That said, the DEA who currently defines a Schedule I narcotic as those "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” has yet to release any statement at this time.
