Big Marijuana is the only winner with rescheduling
The Rise of Big Marijuana: Who Really Wins with Federal Rescheduling?
Last week the Biden administration recommended marijuana be rescheduled from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug, and it sent the marijuana investment markets skyrocketing. Regardless of the change, marijuana will still remain a federally illegal drug and states who legalize it are still open to liability, should the federal government decide to enforce its own law. So who was the real winner? Big Marijuana.
If rescheduling occurs (and it is not a done deal yet), it means that large, well-funded marijuana corporations could be eligible for billions of dollars in tax write-offs, and now they have a federal administration helping them to normalize their highly-addictive product.
Here a few examples of Big Marijuana:
Phillip Morris: One of the largest tobacco companies in the globe, invested $20 million into Syqe Medical, an Israeli marijuana company that has created a marijuana inhaler.
Altria: Altria Group, maker of Marlboro, invested $1.8 billion in Cronos for a 45% stake in the Canadian-based marijuana company.
Anheuser Busch: Invested $50 million to partner Tilray through subsidiary brand Labatt to create a marijuana-infused drink.
Heineken: Heineken subsidiary Lagunitas partnered with CannaCraft brand Absolute Xtracts to create a non-alcoholic marijuana-infused beer.
Molson Coors: Partnered with HEXO (Hydropothecary Corporation) to develop marijuana-infused beverages. Molson Coors is entitled to purchase shares of HEXO through the deal.
Aiding this effort to commercialize marijuana across the U.S. are many political heavyweights, who are now cashing in on the financial windfall of Big Marijuana. These include Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), and Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), among others.
What is most remarkable about this whole situation is that for the first time in my memory a federal agency is being asked to reschedule a drug for political reasons. If this were for medical reasons, then the request would not have bypassed the Schedule II category completely, which includes drugs with a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. As a Schedule III drug, our federal agencies will be asked to certify that marijuana has a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.
For starters, that is a patently false assumption that those in health compliance agencies understand to be untrue. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 10 people who begin to use marijuana will become addicted.
The National Institute of Drug Abuse is well aware that from 1995-2021, marijuana THC potencies have increased from 3% to 15%. And a landmark study from Denmark that has been widely shared with governmental health agencies found “strong evidence of an association between cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia among men and women, though the association was much stronger among young men...The study authors estimated that as many as 30% of cases of schizophrenia among men aged 21-30 might have been prevented by averting cannabis use disorder.”
Even the Obama administration understood the risks of marijuana and recommended that it continue to be a Schedule I drug. Political interests are pushing to legalize recreational marijuana at breakneck speed — much faster than the health research needed to understand the health risks. Objective research is beginning to push through the Big Marijuana hype and the news is not good.
Our national health agencies and federal government can’t be blind to the consequences, yet they push on with an effort to reschedule anyway. Worse yet, our state legislators, and Gov. Chris Sununu, know all of this yet they continue to push for recreational legalization right now.
What can you do if you are concerned about our state legislators and federal agencies trying to cash in on the sale of a federally illegal drug and doing the bidding of Big Marijuana? Provide your input on rescheduling when the federal public comment period opens.
This change is considered a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making, which means there will be 30 to 60 days for public comment. This notice will be posted in the Federal Register.
You can also email or call your state senator and Gov. Sununu, and tell them that you do not want New Hampshire to be a victim for Big Marijuana, and you would like them to say NO to HB 1633, a bill to legalize recreational marijuana.
At this point, it’s clear there are many New Hampshire legislators, and our governor, who are jumping at the bit to bring a new marijuana addiction tax to our state. In addition, our federal agencies are doing their best to help destigmatize a highly addictive and psychoactive drug. So now it’s up to you to remind them that Granite Staters don’t want Big Marijuana to ruin our state.
