By Bill Piper, Drug Policy Alliance
Some people are asking if President Obama will reschedule marijuana before he leaves office, and whether the marijuana reform movement should make rescheduling a major priority.
Although rescheduling would be huge politically – the federal government finally admitting marijuana has medical value – rescheduling wouldn’t actually help patients in the short term, and might do more harm than good if it distracts from real reform.
Marijuana is currently in Schedule I, the classification for drugs that are supposedly highly addictive and have no medical value. While marijuana certainly does not belong in this category, simply rescheduling it would not make it available for medical use.
