Strong Majority Of Marijuana Rescheduling Public Comments Support Even Broader Reform Than Biden’s Plan, Two Analyses Show

Two separate analyses of tens of thousands of public comments filed about the federal government’s plan to move marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) indicate that the bulk of submissions on the proposal came in support of cannabis reform. In fact, most commenters said marijuana should be removed from the CSA completely instead of just being rescheduled..

According to one report from industry analytics firm Headset, approximately 35 percent of comments submitted to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) by Monday’s deadline agreed with the Biden administration plan for marijuana to be rescheduled. But most—57 percent—said cannabis should be entirely descheduled.

Only 8 percent of comments said the substance should remain in Schedule I.

“These numbers paint a clear picture: over 9 out of 10 individuals who took the time to comment believe that cannabis should not remain a Schedule I substance,” Headset said in a post about the results. “Moreover, the majority of commenters went beyond the proposed rescheduling to Schedule III, arguing for complete removal from the controlled substances list.”

The group said turnout during the public comment period, which began in May and ended on Monday, “has shattered previous DEA records, surpassing even the highly contentious 2020 telemedicine rules that garnered approximately 38,000 comments.”

Headset

Marijuana rescheduling, by comparison, drew nearly 43,000 comments.

On every single day of the public comment period, submissions in favor of moving marijuana out of Schedule I outweighed those opposed to the reform, according to the new Headset report.

Headset

A separate analysis of the comments, conducted by the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), concluded that 69 percent of comments “support federally decriminalizing marijuana or descheduling it.”

Specifically, 69.3 percent of comments “support descheduling, decriminalizing, or legalizing marijuana at the federal level,” DPA said.

According to DPA’s analysis, nearly a quarter of all comments filed on the docket were submitted through a tool hosted by the group United for Marijuana Decriminalization, of which DPA is a key member. “These comments were the result of months of grassroots efforts to communities that have been impacted by marijuana criminalization,” the group said.

Of comments submitted by the federal deadline, DPA’s analysis found, 42.4 percent mentioned the need for federal marijuana reform “to advance racial justice or social equity.”

Cat Packer, DPA’s director of drug markets and legal regulation and a former cannabis regulator in Los Angeles, said in a statement that the comments represent a demand by the American people that “the Biden Administration do more to deliver on the marijuana reforms that communities deserve—and that President Biden and Vice President Harris themselves have promised on numerous occasions.”

“Our analysis of public comment data shows that not only do over two-thirds of Americans who participated in the public comment process demand more than just rescheduling, but 42% recognize that ending federal criminalization is key to achieving racial justice and social equity,” Packer said. “This is something that the Biden Administration has repeatedly identified as a priority in their marijuana reform efforts.”

The proposed federal reform would fall short of those goals, she added.

“Under Schedule III, communities of color would still face disproportionate harms and lifelong consequences from federal marijuana criminalization,” Packer said. “Under Schedule III, people could still be jailed or deported for marijuana violations, even in states where it is legal. Under Schedule III, people could lose their jobs, their housing, their SNAP food stamp benefits, or even lose custody of their children for marijuana violations. If the Biden Administration wants to be responsive to public opinion and live up to their own stated values of racial justice and repair, marijuana must be federally decriminalized and additional actions must be taken to end the lifelong collateral consequences that result from marijuana criminalization.”

If the government does move forward with rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III of the CSA, she continued, “there are additional actions that President Biden and Congress can take.”

“This is a galvanizing moment for our movement for drug policies grounded in health, equity, and reinvestment,” she said. “In the coming weeks and months, we will continue working with our allies to urge President Biden to take a whole government approach to advance equity in federal marijuana policy and mitigate the harms of criminalization. That means expanding pardons and commutations, protecting state marijuana programs, and directing federal agencies to cease punishing people for marijuana use.”

“We know that the people and the evidence are on our side,” Packer asserted. “It is time that our federal government listened.”

DPA explained the analytical process behind the report as follows, noting that researchers ran the results through AI processing software:

First, the analysts identified comments that were submitted in bulk using prominent public comment tools that support descheduling, including the one hosted by United for Marijuana Decriminalization, which submitted 10,327 comments through its tool. Then, the analysts manually scanned comments for key search terms to ensure that most comments including the search terms were not only mentioning the terms, but in favor of those terms. Next, using Python, the analysts input the search terms to identify comments in support of descheduling. They repeated the process to identify comments that demonstrated support for federal marijuana reform to address racial justice and social equity. Finally, the instructions and comments were run through Chat GPT to confirm the accuracy of the results.

To assess support for descheduling, key search terms included: deschedule, descheduling, de schedule, de scheduling, de-schedule, de-scheduling, unschedule, unscheduling, un schedule, un scheduling, decriminalize, de criminalize, de-criminalize, decriminalizing, de criminalizing, de-criminalizing, remove from schedule, remove from the schedule, remove from CSA, remove from the CSA, remove from controlled substances act, remove from the controlled substances act, please legalize, rescheduling is not enough, need to legalize, I support legal, legalize marijuana, legalize cannabis, declassify, declassification, time to legalize, just legalize it, should be legal, should be fully legal, should be fully removed, should be completely legal, should be removed, legalize!, legalize it!, legalize it, make it legal, take it off, support cannabis legalization, treated like alcohol, needs to be removed, needs to be fully legal, I support full legal, I support fully legal, full federal legal, complete federal legal, and full legalization.

To assess support for racial justice and social equity, key search terms included: social justice, racial justice, racial equity, social equity, racial disparity, racial disparities, racism, racist, drug war, war on drugs, disproportionate impact, unjust, disproportionately target, marginalized communities, people of color, and injustices.

The 60-day public comment period kicked off in May, shortly after the president and the Justice Department (DOJ) confirmed the marijuana rescheduling plan.

DOJ officials have said they’ll take all public comments submitted by the deadline into consideration as they weighs the reform, but they’ve said they’re especially interested in hearing about the “unique economic impacts” of rescheduling, noting that state-level legalization has created a “multibillion dollar industry” that stands to benefit from possible federal tax relief under the reform.

Now that the comment period is closed, there may be an administrative hearing to receive additional input before the rule is potentially finalized and formally adopted.

As the door closes on public comments, others are weighing in on the matter in different venues.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) sent a letter to federal officials condemning the Biden administration over what he described as repeated refusals from federal agencies to brief Congress on its plans and justification for rescheduling marijuana, which he argues fuels speculation that the proposed policy change is politically motivated.

At the Republican National Committee convention last week, multiple GOP lawmakers also spoke with Marijuana Moment about their views on how cannabis policy issues such as rescheduling could be impacted if former President Donald Trump wins the November election. They generally deferred to the nominee, but there were mixed opinions about what they would like to see happen.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), for his part, said at the event that “I don’t care” whether rolling back the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling move under a potential Trump presidency would hurt the Republican party, because he feels more strongly that the modest reform would endanger public health.

Also, bipartisan congressional lawmakers are now seeking to remove a controversial section of a spending bill that would block the Justice Department from rescheduling marijuana—one of several cannabis- and psychedelics-related amendments to appropriations legislation that have been filed in recent days.

GOP senators have separately tried to block the administration from rescheduling cannabis as part of a standalone bill filed last September, but that proposal has not received a hearing or vote.

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