Trump administration move to reclassify cannabis sparks confusion

The Trump administration is making good on its promise to reschedule cannabis , but only partially – raising plenty of questions for those in the cannabis industry. Todd Blanche , the acting attorney general, signed an order last week that removes products sold under state medical cannabis licenses and FDA approved cannabis products from schedule I – defined as substances with no accepted medical use, to schedule III – which includes legal but regulated substances including certain doses of Tylenol with codeine and ketamine. “While some marijuana-related products are no longer being treated as schedule I, it’s not accurate to say marijuana has been broadly rescheduled – this is partial rescheduling, at best,” said Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance. Packer noted that the “FDA-approved” part of the order only applies to prospective FDA approved products that don’t exist yet – it doesn’t affect the few cannabis related pharmaceuticals that are already FDA approved . “More concerning, it appears to predetermine the scheduling outcome for future FDA-approved drugs containing marijuana without a full, evidence-based risk evaluation,” Packer added. The order justifies the partial move by repeatedly citing the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs , a UN treaty that 73 nations including the United States entered in 1961. …