Is Congress sure to take up marijuana reform in spring 2022?
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this curious new Hill piece boldly headlined “Congress to take up marijuana reform this spring.” The lengthy article discusses all sorts of reasons why it is quite possible Congress could get serious about marijuana reform in 2022, but it really does not present any reason to expect that it actually will take up reform soon. Here is an excerpt:
Much of the pressure for reform is bipartisan. On Thursday, Reps. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) and Don Young (R-Alaska) sent a letter to Biden and Vice President Harris urging them to change the severity with which cannabis is listed, or “scheduled,” under the Federal Controlled Substances Act, distinguishing it from “far more dangerous drugs such as Fentantly, morphine, methadone and cocaine.”
The restrictions forced by marijuana’s place as a Schedule 1 drug, Joyce wrote, “puts the United States far behind many of our international partners and scientific competitors,” from Ireland and the U.K to South Korea and Israel. “For the sake of researchers, medical professionals and patients across the United States who continue to lose access to life-saving therapies and data every day #cannabis remains over controlled,” Joyce wrote on Twitter, “I will keep asking.”