In a historic move, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is looking to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Peter Robins-Brown with Louisiana Progress said with close to 40 states having medical marijuana and two dozen with legalized recreational use….
“I think the fact that the federal government is so far behind where a majority of the people in our country live, in terms of the states of legalization, and certainly a majority of the states are with medicinal, it’s long overdue but finally glad they are realizing the errors of their ways,” said Robins-Brown.
In terms of what that means for Louisiana in terms of medicinal cannabis…
“The reclassification will allow us to, hopefully in the very near future, make it a full-on prescription, just like you would get for any other type of medicine,” said Robins-Brown.
Currently, marijuana is in the same classification as heroin and LSD. If approved, it would change from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III.
In terms of this allowing legalized recreational use in Louisiana….
“That does have a lot of other hurdles to clear. I think this reduces one of those hurdles but there are going to be a lot of political hurdles to overcome,” said Robins-Brown.
The DEA proposal will still have to be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Robins-Brown said if approved it acknowledges the medicinal use of marijuana and at the same time recognizes that cannabis is has lesser potential for abuse. The proposal, however, does not legalize recreational use.