Why The Cannabis Caucus Co-Chair Will Not Support Federal Rescheduling: No More Half Steps
This article was originally published on mgmagazine.com and appears here with permission.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D) is digging in on her all-or-nothing stance on federal cannabis reform, saying she believes the potential move to reschedule cannabis could set the industry’s legalization efforts back another 50 years—to around the time her career in Washington began.
Lee spoke this week at the National Cannabis Industry Association’s California Stakeholder Summit, where she reaffirmed her opposition to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) potentially moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act—a change Lee “assumes” will happen at the end of the review process now underway at the agency.
“Because sometimes when you take an incremental step such as this [rescheduling], which took us years and years and years to get through, it will take another 50 years to get to legalization,” said Lee.
Although Gallup polls have shown public support for cannabis legalization has increased dramatically over the past 50 years, Congressional action and federal reform haven’t budged over the same period.
When questioned about the lack of Congressional policy change in light of such strong support for legalization among voters of all political affiliations, Lee placed the blame on “political dynamics.”
“Of …