Kentucky Governor Urges DEA to Reschedule: ‘The Jury is No Longer Out on Marijuana’

Rescheduling cannabis is a necessary step to help ensure a safe alternative to “deadly opioids,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear wrote in a July 17 letter to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram.

Beshear wrote to Milgram to support the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recommendation to the DEA in August 2023 that cannabis be reclassified from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

That recommendation came after the HHS initiated a scientific and medical evaluation for cannabis and determined it has “currently accepted medical use” in the U.S., meaning it does not belong among heroin, LSD and other Schedule I listed drugs.

Under its current listing, cannabis is considered more dangerous than Schedule II drugs, such as fentanyl, cocaine, oxycodone, methadone, methamphetamine and Vicodin.

“The jury is no longer out on marijuana: It has medical uses and is currently being used for medical purposes,” Beshear wrote. “This recognition is overwhelming—and bipartisan. In Kentucky, for example, I signed a medical marijuana law that passed with support from Republican legislative supermajorities and a Democratic governor.”

Beshear, a Democrat, signed an executive order in November 2022 allowing Kentuckians with certain conditions to possess and use small amounts of cannabis. This order led the state’s Republican-controlled General Assembly to pass a medical cannabis legalization bill that Beshear signed in March 2023.

As governor, Beshear wrote that his job is to move Kentucky forward and that rescheduling cannabis is a “significant, common-sense step forward for all Kentuckians, especially those with severe medical conditions.

Beshear listed four ways that rescheduling cannabis would have “substantial and meaningful impacts” in Kentucky and elsewhere:

• For patients, rescheduling destigmatizes medical marijuana, confirms medical freedom, provides an alternative to deadly opioids, and ensures continued access to safe products.
• For communities, rescheduling means legal medical cannabis programs continue to provide a secure alternative to illicit and unregulated markets, further reducing crime and abuse.
• For businesses, rescheduling means fair markets—placing cannabis businesses on the same economic footing as any other business.
• For the scientific community, rescheduling means real opportunities for research on marijuana.
  

Supporting that first point, Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center (DEPC) released a report on July 10 that showed a large majority of current and potential medical cannabis patients surveyed agreed that using medical marijuana reduced their use of prescription painkillers or illicit drugs.

The study’s results indicated that a large majority of respondents agreed (77.6% agree versus 1.7% disagree) that cannabis reduced their use of prescription painkillers. The results also showed that 26.8% agreed and 1.9% disagreed that cannabis reduced their use of other federally illicit drugs.

When Beshear served as Kentucky’s attorney general from 2016 to 2019, he said he held “big pharma” accountable for “devastating” Kentucky communities, filing a record number of individual opioid lawsuits. These lawsuits led to more than $900 million in funds from pharmaceutical companies that “preyed” on Kentucky communities, Beshear wrote in his letter to Milgram.

“We saw the devastation these supposedly ‘less harmful’ drugs caused to our families and communities,” he wrote. “From 2012 to 2016, Kentucky experienced more than 1,250 opioid overdose deaths in four counties alone. During the same time period, over 5,800 Kentuckians died from opioid abuse. However, according to Kentucky’s Office of Drug Control Policy, during that same period, we experienced no marijuana overdose deaths.”

Drug overdose deaths involving opioids rose to a national high of 81,806 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Kentucky, Beshear said the state’s Office of Drug Control Policy, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and the Department of Behavioral Health, Development and Disabilities all support rescheduling.

“Thankfully, a well-regulated medical marijuana market provides an alternative to opioids,” Beshear wrote. “Our sister states have shown that medical marijuana programs are safe. With age restrictions, rigorous testing standards, packaging and labeling requirements, and advertising restrictions, state medical marijuana markets have provided safe, effective medical products to millions of Americans.”