Drug Policy
Related: About this forumTop US drug agency a notable holdout in Biden's push to loosen federal marijuana restrictions
Source: Associated Press
Top US drug agency a notable holdout in Bidens push to loosen federal marijuana restrictions
BY JOSHUA G0ODMAN AND JIM MUSTIAN
Updated 8:58 PM EDT, May 20, 2024
In an isolated part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters known as the 12th-floor bubble, chief Anne Milgram made an unusual request of top deputies summoned in March for what she called the Marijuana Meeting: Nobody could take notes.
Over the next half hour, she broke the news that the Biden administration would soon be issuing a long-awaited order reclassifying pot as a less-dangerous drug, a major hurdle toward federal legalization that DEA has long resisted. And Milgram went on to reveal another twist, according to two people familiar with the private meeting who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, that the process normally steered by the DEA had been taken over by the U.S. Justice Department and the action would not be signed by her but by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Milgram didnt give aides a reason for the unprecedented omission and neither she nor the DEA has explained since. But it unfolded this past week exactly as laid out in that meeting two months ago, with the most significant drug policy change in 50 years launched without the support of the nations premier narcotics agency.
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Internal records accompanying the order indicate the DEA sent a memo to the Justice Department in late January seeking additional scientific input to determine whether marijuana has an accepted medical use, a key requirement for reclassification. But those concerns were overruled by Justice Department attorneys, who deemed the DEAs criteria impermissibly narrow.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-pot-dea-legalization-biden-cb7869d3286094f0124de728320d89c1
Voltaire2
(14,626 posts)The DEA is part of the DOJ, so the DEAs views can be ignored by Garland and Biden.
Midnight Writer
(22,886 posts)Many other States have followed suit since then.
Did the dystopian predictions of a drug-addled society come true in those States?
Marijuana is a drug and should be treated cautiously, but it is not something we should be jailing people for.