“Rescheduling Marijuana: Implications for Criminal and Collateral Consequences”

The title of this post is the title of this short document prepared by the Congressional Research Service.  The document is notable mostly for its review of marijuana’s existing criminal and collateral consequences than for a review of the implication of resecheduling.  Here is the heart of the rescheduling discussions:

Many CSA penalties for marijuana violations are written specifically for marijuana and are not tied to its Schedule I classification. If marijuana moves to Schedule III, those penalties would remain the same.  Many CSA and other federal offenses associated with marijuana’s general status as a controlled substance would also remain the same….

If marijuana moves to Schedule III, most of the consequences for its use or for marijuana-related convictions would remain the same.

That said, though rescheduling will not have many certain formal legal consequences in this area, I do think it could and likely would have all sorts of practical enforcement consequences. The CRS document notes the significant enforcement changes we have seen in recent years at the federa level even without any formal legal reforms:

Over the last five years (FY2019–FY2023), the number of individuals sentenced for marijuana trafficking in federal court has declined by 66%, from 1,674 per year to 561.  This decline is even sharper when considering longer term trends. In FY2014, 3,876 individuals were sentenced in federal court for marijuana trafficking (almost seven times higher than FY2023).

A few years ago, I co-authored this paper discussing these federal enforcement trends under the title “How State Reforms Have Mellowed Federal Enforcement of Marijuana Prohibition.”  I would expect federal marijuana rescheduling to have all sorts of (predictable and unpredictable) practical “implications for criminal and collateral consequences” in federal and state systems even if the formal legal impacts are quite modest.  

If any folks are interested in the wide array of broader legal issue connected to possible federal marijuana rescheduling, consider attending the online event next week hosted by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.  This event, titled “Federal Marijuana Reform: Effects and Echoes of Rescheduling,” will take place on August 7, 2024 from 12 noon to 1:15 pm EDT, is described at this event page (which links to this registration page).