If the U.S. government moves marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA)—as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has now formally recommended—the shift could have profound implications for all sorts of cannabis-related issues, ranging from research to business taxes to U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mailing rules.
In the aftermath of the HHS announcement, some of the proposal’s would-be consequences are clearer than others. For instance, it’s evident that cannabis businesses could, for the first time, claim standard business deductions on their federal tax returns, freed from the restrictions of IRS Tax Code Section 280E. But other matters, such as what exactly the shift would mean for federal workers, are still a bit murky.
One takeaway is immediately clear: Rescheduling would not make adult-use cannabis businesses legal under federal law, regardless of whether they comply with their own state laws. Schedule III substances—which include ketamine, anabolic steroids and Tylenol with codeine—are still highly regulated and not permitted to be sold without a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) license or used by consumers without a doctor’s prescription or other authorization. And while medical marijuana might become broadly legal if the change goes through, most states would need to
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