Marijuana's prospective reclassification stirs reaction from Asheville business

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — As the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration works to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, the manager of an Asheville CBD dispensary talks about the potential impacts of any change.

This shift comes after President Joe Biden requested that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General, who oversees the DEA, review how marijuana should be classified.

Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I narcotic. It falls under substances such as LSD and heroin. Schedule I narcotics are identified by the federal government as having no inherent medicinal value while also being highly addictive.

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If this new recommendation is successful, it would reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III narcotic, placing it alongside substances such as ketamine, some anabolic steroids, and Tylenol with codeine.

On Thursday, May 2, News 13 spoke with Stonewall Harrison, the general manager at Mary Jane's CBD Dispensary on Hendersonville Road in Asheville.

Harrison has spent nearly 14 years studying hemp and says that there are setbacks to lowering marijuana as a lower-risk drug.

"If we were to convert to a marijuana dispensary, we wouldn't be able to sell tobacco products such as like cigar wraps," he said. "We would still be able to sell raw paper and hemp wraps, but you can't sell tobacco and cannabis in the same location like you can with hemp and tobacco."

On the other hand, Harrison believes this reclassification could also play a major role in medicine moving forward.

"I've seen a lot of people go from opioid to just cannabis. They've had excellent results as far as being noticeably more cognitive and able to go out and enjoy life. It seems it give people a higher quality of life," he said.

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Although the use of marijuana remains illegal in North Carolina, the first medical cannabis dispensary in Cherokee was established earlier this month. However, this did spark controversy, particularly among law enforcement.