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A former U.S. attorney general who served during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term says marijuana \u201cposes horrific health risks,\u201d has no medical value and should not be rescheduled under federal law.<\/p>\n
\u201cRescheduling marijuana would create the false impression that it is safe, would reduce penalties for peddling the drug illegally and would give those who purvey it legally a huge tax windfall,\u201d William Barr wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post on Wednesday that was coauthored by Kevin Sabet, CEO of the prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana. \u201cThat would be a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
The op-ed comes as the Trump administration is moving ahead with cannabis rescheduling.<\/p>\n
Under an order issued by U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April,\u00a0marijuana products regulated by a state medical cannabis license immediately moved from Schedule I<\/a> of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III, as did any marijuana products that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).<\/p>\n An administrative\u00a0hearing is considering broader marijuana rescheduling<\/a>, with Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) charged with defending the cannabis reform<\/a> highlighting testimony on marijuana\u2019s medical benefits and its relative safety compared to other substances such as alcohol and opioids<\/a>. That included appearances from a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientist and a medical doctor from New Hampshire who detailed how\u00a0medical marijuana provides relief to pain patients and can serve as an alternative to opioids.<\/a><\/p>\n But Sabet and Barr, who was attorney general under Trump from 2019-2020, argued that \u201cevidence presented at the hearing utterly failed to support rescheduling marijuana\u201d and instead \u201cconfirmed what decades of data have shown: Raw marijuana has no scientifically established medical value and carries a high risk of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n After parties in the hearing filed their closing briefs, the DEA administrative law judge overseeing the proceedings will issue a recommendation on rescheduling, and the agency\u2019s administrator will then make a final determination.<\/p>\n DEA Administrator Terrance Cole\u00a0invited only organizations and people who oppose marijuana reform to join the hearing<\/a>\u00a0as designated participants\u2014telling supporters that they do not meet the definition of an \u201cinterested person\u201d to participate because they are not \u201cadversely affected or aggrieved by any rule or proposed rule issuable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 The new op-ed from the former attorney general says the \u201cstakes couldn\u2019t be higher,\u201d arguing that \u201ctoday\u2019s marijuana is more dangerous than ever before\u201d and is \u201caddictive,\u201d rattling off a list of alleged harms to mental and physical health.<\/p>\n \u201cThese health consequences are the predictable result of a highly potent, addictive drug being normalized, commercialized and marketed as medicine,\u201d Barr and Sabet claim. \u201cIt would be one thing if marijuana had medical value. But there is no credible evidence that marijuana is effective treatment for any medical condition, notwithstanding the millions of dollars spent trying to prove otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2023 published a 252-analysis concluding that marijuana does have accepted medical value and should be rescheduled.<\/p>\n The new opposition piece also says that \u201crescheduling would unlock enormous revenue for the corporate marijuana industry by putting the drug into a category not covered by a long-standing restriction on federal tax deductions,\u201d referring to a law known as 280E that blocks sellers of Schedule I and II substances from writing business expenses off their taxes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would, in turn, allow the industry to spend even more on advertising and marketing to young people,\u201d Barr and Sabet wrote<\/a>, arguing that \u201cthose who would loose this dragon on society are laying the groundwork for another Big Tobacco.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabet\u2019s organization, SAM, is one of several parties\u00a0challenging the marijuana rescheduling process with several lawsuits<\/a> that have been consolidated by a federal appeals court. Those separate pieces of litigation against the cannabis reform have been filed by state attorneys general<\/a>,\u00a0marijuana legalization opponents<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0cannabis-focused biopharmaceutical corporation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The suit from SAM was signed by attorneys at Torridon Law PLLC, where Barr is a partner.<\/p>\n The group had announced in January that it was hiring Barr\u2019s firm to legally combat cannabis rescheduling<\/a>\u00a0after Tump signed an executive order directing officials to complete the process expeditiously.<\/p>\n During his time in office under the first Trump administration, Barr was accused by a Justice Department official of directing improper antitrust investigations into multiple cannabis company mergers<\/a>\u2014accounting for nearly one-third of the division\u2019s cases in 2019.<\/p>\n Several Democratic members of Congress filed a resolution the following calling for an inquiry into Barr\u2019s possible impeachment, saying he \u201cabused the power of his office\u201d to improperly investigate marijuana businesses<\/a> while allegedly engaging in other unlawful conduct.<\/p>\n The post Marijuana Has \u2018Horrific Health Risks\u2019 And No Medical Value, Former Trump Attorney General Claims<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A former U.S. attorney general who served during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term says marijuana \u201cposes horrific health risks,\u201d has no medical value and should not be rescheduled under federal law. \u201cRescheduling marijuana would create the false impression that it is safe, would reduce penalties for peddling the drug illegallyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":86464,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86465,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86463\/revisions\/86465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Marijuana Has \u2018Horrific Health Risks\u2019 And No Medical Value, Former Trump Attorney General Claims<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"