INDIANAPOLIS — A historic change could be coming to marijuana.
Numerous reports indicate the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
Federal restrictions currently place marijuana in the strictest drug category. Cannabis is labeled a Schedule I controlled substance, which is the most dangerous classification that includes drugs like heroin and LSD. The DEA’s latest proposal would recertify it as a Schedule III drug.
“A Schedule III controlled substance means there could be some medical use for the substance,” said Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner. “Schedule I, there is no medical use for it.”
The DEA’s proposal would mark the first time the U.S. government has acknowledged marijuana’s potential medical benefits. Legal experts like Indiana University professor Jennifer Oliva said reclassifying cannabis would also now allow it to be studied.
“It’s very, very difficult to obtain permission from the federal government to even research a drug,” she said. “It’s a huge move after five-plus decades of this.”
Experts like Oliva said this move would acknowledge marijuana has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs, but it would not outright legalize it here in Indiana. While possession of marijuana might not be a top priority for some law enforcement agencies, Prosecutor Hamner said it is still a crime to have any.
“Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor,” he said. “And how it’s prosecuted as a misdemeanor isn’t going to make any difference, it’s not going to change at all because of this reclassification.”
Even if this proposal is approved, experts said marijuana will remain illegal in Indiana unless changes are made on a statewide level.
“Indiana is going to have to make a legislative change, given the structure of its law right now, in response to this in order for people to be able to legally access cannabis in some way shape or form either medically or recreationally in the state of Indiana,” Oliva said.
The White House still has to review the proposal, which experts said is a process that could take several months, but they speculate it could be done before the November election.
