BY RICHARD OSTLING

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:

All the buzz after President Biden’s State of the Union address ignored his boast about “directing my Cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana.” Since 1970, the federal government has designated marijuana, a.k.a. cannabis, as a dangerous Schedule I drug alongside ecstasy, heroin, and LSD, therefore outlawing manufacture, distribution or possession, except for qualified research.

But prodded by the President, the Health and Human Services  department in 2022 launched a review and last August 29 reversed itself, recommending that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) instead redefine marijuana as a less risky Schedule III drug (akin to Tylenol combined with limited codeine, katamine, steroids, and testosterone supplements).

There’s been a huge recent expansion of “recreational” marijuana use, with markets now legalized by 24 states and the District of Columbia. (Far less disputed medical uses are now legal in 38 states.) That creates an anomalous conflict between these states and the continued federal restrictions. Schedule III status would create a cash bonanza for the recreational marijuana industry by allowing sellers to deduct business expenses on federal taxes.

Amid political pressures

As the DEA ponders what to do, it has received political pressure to make the Schedule III switch from six governors and from 12 state attorneys general, all Democrats. Pleas to maintain Schedule I status went to the DEA from eight Senators and six House members, all Republicans, and from a bipartisan alliance of six former DEA administrators and five former directors of White House drug policy. Meanwhile, 31 House members supported a Congressional Cannabis Caucus bid for not only Schedule III status but full legalization.

As for religion, a 2021 Pew Research Center poll found that 60% of American adults favored legal recreational use while another 31% supported legalization only for medical uses, with 8% wanting total illegality. Among the Catholics, there was 53% recreational support, with a familiar Protestant split showing 44% support among white evangelicals compared with 62% for non-evangelical whites (mostly in “mainline” churches) and 63% for Black Protestants. Religiously unaffiliated respondents supported recreational use by 76%.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionqanda/2024/03/what-do-u-s-churches-believe-on-recreational-marijuana/