“A decision about whether to continue one of the most outdated and destructive drug policies in American history should not exclude the people and advocates most directly affected by it.”
By Jason Ortiz, Last Prisoner Project
The federal government has finally admitted what millions of people have known for decades: cannabis never belonged in Schedule I. But it’s listening to the wrong voices in deciding how to carry out the process.
Schedule I is supposed to be reserved for substances with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. By moving cannabis products produced within state-regulated medical cannabis programs to Schedule III, the government has acknowledged that cannabis has medical value. That admission may be limited, but it cuts through the central justification for keeping cannabis in Schedule I at all. If cannabis no longer fits that category, the criminal penalties tied to its Schedule I status must change too.
I have walked the halls of Congress with people who served years, and in some cases decades, for cannabis offenses while legal cannabis businesses opened across the country. I have heard from veterans and patients who fear that using cannabis for pain, trauma or chronic illness could put
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