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A proposal from the Biden administration to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous substance is a good step in ending America’s long, and failed, war on drugs. However, much more remains to be done to align federal drug policy with the realities, and real dangers, of substance use.
The Associated Press reported late last month that the Drug Enforcement Administration will soon begin the process of reclassifying marijuana, which could ease federal restrictions on the medical use of cannabis, which is legal in 38 states, including Maine. It could also ease restrictions on marijuana research.
The reclassification would not impact recreational marijuana sales, which are legal in 23 states, including Maine. It would not necessarily ease restrictions on banking and loans, which some say have hampered the cannabis industry. In addition, it would not impact the sentences of those currently incarcerated for marijuana-related crimes.
Still, industry officials and advocates for the legalization of cannabis hailed the proposal.
Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis attorney who runs well-known legal blogs on those topics, told The Associated Press the proposal was “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting.”
“I can’t emphasize enough how big of news it is,” he said.
The proposed reclassification, which will undergo further federal review and a public comment period, is significant because it signals a shift in thinking about cannabis, not because it is a major policy change.
For far too long, the federal government has pursued a punitive policy toward drug use, which has not reduced overdose deaths and has led to the incarceration of far too many people — a disproportionate number of them people of color — for drug offenses.
On this front, recently passed laws in Maine could help more of the state’s residents move beyond drug convictions, particularly from the time before recreational cannabis use was legalized in Maine in 2017.
Under a law signed last month by Gov. Janet Mills, more drug-related criminal records can now be sealed, with the aim of helping more Mainers escape the stigma of a low-level drug conviction. Another measure will remove the age requirements for sealing criminal histories.
Peter Lehman, the Maine Prison Advocacy coalition’s legislative director, told lawmakers he has worked with hundreds of people who are burdened repeatedly by criminal histories when seeking jobs, housing and even recovery services.
“We also want to emphasize that the burden of a criminal record falls most heavily on the poor and racial and ethnic minorities who are overrepresented in Maine’s prisons,” Lehman said in testimony in March. “The northern, poorest and most rural counties are overrepresented in the Maine prisons partly from the same dynamic.”
The law changes were among the recommendations from a state panel that reviewed how the state’s criminal records are handled.
The state and federal changes are important steps in a better approach to substance use, especially cannabis use, which is now legal in Maine. Lawmakers, in both Augusta and Washington, can build on them to craft more appropriate drug policies that do not unnecessarily stigmatize people while focusing resources on reducing harmful substance use.
