Cannabis

The Guardian -  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.

....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. The Convention requires that specified “narcotics”, including cannabis, be produced only in limited quantities, and for scientific and medical purposes only.

“There’s an ongoing debate here,” Packer said, “Some would argue that, given the federal government’s posture toward state legalization, the US is already functionally out of alignment with the treaty – similar to how Canada has approached legalization.” Cannabis is legal and regulated across Canada, despite their participation in the Single Convention.